Lettuce variety nun 06176 ltl

ABSTRACT

The disclosure relates to lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL as well as seeds and plants and heads or leaves thereof. NUN 06176 LTL is a romaine short day lettuce variety for the desert cool winter, comprising resistance to Downy Mildew ( Bremia lactucae ) Isolates Bl:16-25EU and Bl:28-30EU.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No.62/882,174, filed on Aug. 2, 2019, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The disclosure relates to the field of plant breeding and, morespecifically, to the development of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. Thedisclosure further relates to vegetative reproductions of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL, methods for tissue culture of lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL, and to phenotypic variants of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.The disclosure also relates to progeny of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTLand the hybrid varieties obtained by crossing lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL as a parent line with plants of other varieties or parent lines.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

The goal of vegetable breeding is to combine various desirable traits ina single variety. Such desirable traits may include greater yield,resistance to diseases, insects or other pests, tolerance to heat anddrought, better agronomic quality, higher nutritional value, enhancedgrowth rate, and improved shelf life.

The development of commercial lettuce cultivars or varieties requiresthe crossing of lettuce plants, and the evaluation of the crosses.Pedigree breeding and recurrent selection are examples of breedingmethods used to develop cultivars from breeding populations. Breedingprograms combine desirable traits from two or more varieties or variousbroad-based sources into breeding pools from which cultivars aredeveloped by selfing and selection of desired phenotypes. The newcultivars are crossed with other varieties and the inbred lines orhybrids from these crosses are evaluated to determine which havecommercial potential.

All cultivated forms of lettuce belong to the highly polymorphic speciesLactuca sativa that is grown for its edible head and leaves. Lactucasativa is in the Asteraceae (Compositae) family. Lettuce is related tochicory, sunflower, aster, dandelion, artichoke, and chrysanthemum. L.sativa is one of about 300 species in the genus Lactuca. There are manytypes of lettuce, and new types are constantly in development. Types oflettuce include Cutting/Leaf, Iceberg/Crisphead, Cos or Romaine,Batavian, Salinas Group, Latin, Butterhead, Great Lakes Group, Eastern(Ithaca) Group, Bibb, Vanguard Group, Multileaf, or Stem lettuce.Lettuce is typically consumed fresh and occasionally as a cookedvegetable. It is popularly used in salads, wraps, and sandwiches.

Fresh lettuce is available in the United States year-round although thegreatest supply is from May through October. For planting purposes, thelettuce season is typically divided into three categories, early, midand late, with the coastal areas planting from January to August, andthe desert regions planting from August to December. California andArizona are the two largest producers of lettuce in the United States.

Changes in lifestyle primarily due to increasing health awarenessresults to growing demand for healthy convenience food. Supermarkets,restaurants, catering firms, and convenience stores are constantlylooking for more colorful garnishing for sandwiches, wraps, andready-to-eat snacks such as salads. The changing food and consumertrends present opportunities for breeding companies to develop newvarieties with specific shapes of leaves, specific average size ofleaves, prominent color, glossiness, taste, and a wide variety oftexture. Other breeding objectives include disease or pest resistance,yield, prolonged shelf life, and suitability to climatic requirements.

SUMMARY OF VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE DISCLOSURE

The disclosure provides for lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, productsthereof, and methods of using the same. NUN 06176 LTL is a romaine shortday lettuce variety for the Mediterranean cool autumn and is suitablefor growing in the open field.

In another aspect, the plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, or partthereof, or progeny thereof comprises resistance to Downy Mildew (Bremialactucae) Isolates Bl:16-25EU and Bl:28-30EU, measured according to UPOVstandards described in TG/13/11.

The disclosure also provides a lettuce plant or part thereof having allof the physiological and morphological characteristics of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL, when grown under the same environmentalconditions. The disclosure also provides for a progeny of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL. In another aspect, the disclosure provides aplant or a progeny retaining all or all but one, two, or three of the“distinguishing characteristics” of the plant of lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL, or all but one, two, or three of the “morphological andphysiological characteristics” of the plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL and methods of producing that plant or progeny.

In one aspect, the plant or progeny has all or all but one, two, orthree of the physiological and morphological characteristics of theplant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, when grown under the sameenvironmental conditions and e.g., evaluated at significance levels of1%, 5%, or 10% significance (which can be expressed as a p-value) forquantitative characteristics and identical (same degree or type) fornon-quantitative characteristics, wherein a representative sample ofseed of variety NUN 06176 LTL has been deposited under Accession NumberNCIMB ______. In another aspect, the plant or progeny has all or all butone, two, or three of the physiological and morphologicalcharacteristics as listed in Tables 1-2 of the plant of lettuce varietyNUN 06176 LTL, when measured under the same environmental conditions ande.g., evaluated at significance levels of 1%, 5%, or 10% significance(which can also be expressed as a p value) for quantitativecharacteristics and identical (same degree or type) for non-quantitativecharacteristics.

In another aspect, the plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, or partthereof, or a progeny thereof has 25, 26, more or all of the followingdistinguishing characteristics when compared to Reference Variety asshown in Table 3: 1) black seed color; 2) smaller plant head diameter;3) more leaves; 4) smaller plant spread of frame leaves; 5) shorterplant height; 6) lighter plant height; 7) dark purple fourth leaf color;8) shorter fourth leaf length; 9) smaller fourth leaf width; 10) lesserect mature leaf attitude; 11) very strong anthocyanin coloration; 12)purplish anthocyanin hue; 13) very large area of the leaf covered byanthocyanin; 14) reddish purple mature leaf color; 15) very lightintensity of green color of mature leaf, 16) larger mature leafblisters; 17) more undulation of mature leaf margin; 18) semi-flabellatemature leaf venation; 19) shorter mature leaf length; 20) smaller matureleaf width; 21) smaller mature leaf size; 22) entire distribution ofanthocyanin; 23) diffused kind of anthocyanin distribution; 24) flatbutt shape; 25) longer height of base of head to apex (core length); and26) thinner diameter at base of head (core width), when grown under thesame environmental conditions.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a seed of lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL, wherein a representative sample of said seed has beendeposited under Accession Number NCIMB ______. The disclosure alsoprovides for a plurality of seeds of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. Thelettuce seed of variety NUN 06176 LTL may be provided as an essentiallyhomogeneous population of lettuce seed. The population of seed oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL may be particularly defined as anessentially free from other seed. The seed population may be grown intoplants to provide an essentially homogeneous population of lettuceplants described herein.

The disclosure also provides a plant grown from a seed of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL and a plant part thereof.

The disclosure further provides a lettuce head and/or a lettuce leafproduced on a plant grown from a seed of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

The disclosure furthermore provides a seed growing or grown on a plantof lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL (e.g., produced after pollination ofthe flower of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL).

In another aspect, the disclosure provides for a plant part obtainedfrom lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, wherein said plant part is: a leaf,a part of a leaf, a head, a part of a head, a fruit, a part of a fruit,pollen, an ovule, a cell, a petiole, a shoot or a part thereof, a stemor a part thereof, a root or a part thereof, a root tip, a cutting, aseed, a part of a seed, seed coat or another maternal tissue which ispart of a seed grown on said variety, a hypocotyl, a cotyledon, apistil, an anther, or a flower or a part thereof. Heads and leaves areparticularly important plant parts. Such plant parts may be suitable forsexual reproduction, vegetative reproduction, or a tissue culture. Inanother aspect, the plant part obtained from variety NUN 06176 LTL is acell, optionally a cell in a cell or tissue culture. That cell may begrown into a plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides for an inbred variety of NUN06176 LTL.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides for a hybrid lettuce varietyNUN 06176 LTL.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a cell culture of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL and a plant regenerated from lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL, wherein the plant has all of the physiological andmorphological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL whengrown under the same environmental conditions, as well as methods forculturing and regenerating lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. Alternatively,a regenerated plant may have one characteristic that is different fromlettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL and which otherwise has all thephysiological and morphological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL.

The disclosure also provides a vegetatively propagated plant of varietyNUN 06176 LTL having all or all but one, two, or three of themorphological and physiological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL when grown under the same environmental conditions as well asmethods for vegetatively propagating lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a method of producing alettuce plant comprising crossing lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL withitself or another lettuce variety and selecting a progeny lettuce plantfrom said crossing or selfing.

The disclosure also provides a method of producing a lettuce plantderived from lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

In further aspect, the disclosure provides a method of producing hybridlettuce seed comprising crossing a first parent lettuce plant with asecond parent lettuce plant and harvesting the resultant hybrid lettuceseed, wherein said first parent lettuce plant or second parent lettuceplant is lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. Also provided is a hybridlettuce seed produced from crossing a first parent lettuce plant with asecond parent lettuce plant and harvesting the resultant hybrid lettuceseed, wherein said first parent lettuce plant or second parent lettuceplant is lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. Moreover, a hybrid lettuce plantgrown from the hybrid lettuce seed is provided.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a method of introducing asingle locus conversion into the plant of variety NUN 06176 LTL, whereina representative sample of seed of said lettuce variety has beendeposited under Accession Number NCIMB ______, and wherein the singlelocus converted plant comprises the single locus conversion andotherwise all of the physiological and morphological characteristics oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

In yet another aspect, the disclosure provides a method of introducing adesired trait into lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, said method comprisestransforming the plant of variety NUN 06176 LTL with a transgene thatconfers the desired trait, wherein a representative sample of seed ofsaid lettuce variety has been deposited under Accession Number NCIMB______, and wherein the transformed plant contains the desired trait andotherwise all of the physiological and morphological characteristics oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

The disclosure also provides a method of producing a modified lettuceplant with a desired trait, said method comprises mutating a lettuceplant or plant part of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, wherein arepresentative sample of said seed has been deposited under AccessionNumber NCIMB ______, and wherein the mutated plant contains the desiredtrait and otherwise all of the physiological and morphologicalcharacteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

In one aspect, the single locus conversion or desired trait is yield,size, storage properties, color, taste, enhanced nutritional quality,post-harvest quality, male sterility, herbicide tolerance, insectresistance, pest resistance, disease resistance, environmental stresstolerance, modified carbohydrate metabolism, or modified proteinmetabolism, or the mutation occurs in any of the following genes:Ferulate-5-hydroxylase, dmr1, dmr6, NCED4, PAL, PPO.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a container comprising theplant, plant part, or seed of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

Also provided is a food, a feed, or a processed product comprising theplant part of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, wherein the plant part is aleaf or part thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows the whole head of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

FIG. 2 shows the comparison of mature plants of lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL and the Reference Variety.

FIG. 3 shows the comparison of mature leaves of lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL and the Reference Variety.

DEFINITIONS

“Lettuce” refers herein to plants of the species Lactuca sativa L. Themost commonly eaten parts of a lettuce plant are the head or a leaf. Thehead comprises a core and leaves, which may be divided in inner andouter leaves.

“Cultivated lettuce” refers to plants of Lactuca sativa (e.g.,varieties, breeding lines or cultivars of the species L. sativa as wellas crossbreds thereof, or crossbreds with other Lactuca sativa species,or even with other Lactuca species), cultivated by humans and havinggood agronomic characteristics.

“Romaine” or “cos” lettuce refers to a type of lettuce with a tall headcomprising leaves with ribs. The leaves are often relatively dark.

The terms “lettuce plant designated NUN 06176 LTL,” “NUN 06176 LTL,”“inbred NUN 06176,” “06176 LTL,” or “lettuce 06176,” are usedinterchangeably herein and refer to the lettuce plant of variety NUN06176 LTL, representative sample of said seed has been deposited underAccession Number NCIMB ______.

“Plant” includes the whole plant or any parts or derivatives thereof,preferably having the same genetic makeup as the plant from which it isobtained.

“Plant part” includes any part of a plant, such as a plant organ (e.g.,harvested or non-harvested leaves), a plant cell, a plant protoplast, aplant cell tissue culture or a tissue culture from which a whole plantcan be regenerated, a plant cell that is intact in a plant, a clone, amicropropagation, plant callus, a plant cell clump, a plant transplant,a vegetative propagation, a seedling, a fruit, a harvested fruit, a partof a fruit, a leaf, a part of a leaf, pollen, an ovule, an embryo, apetiole, a shoot or a part thereof, a stem or a part thereof, a root ora part thereof, a root tip, a cutting, a seed, a part of a seed, ahypocotyl, a cotyledon, a scion, a graft, a stock, a rootstock, apistil, an anther, or a flower. Seed can be mature or immature. Pollenor ovules may be viable or non-viable. Also, any developmental stage isincluded, such as seedlings, cuttings prior or after rooting, matureplants or leaves. Alternatively, a plant part may also include a plantseed which comprises one or two sets of chromosomes derived from theparent plant (e.g., from lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL). An F1 progenyproduced from self-pollination of the inbred variety NUN 06176 LTL willthus comprise two sets of chromosomes derived from lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL, while an F1 progeny derived from cross-fertilization oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL will comprise only one set of chromosomesfrom lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL and the other set of chromosomes fromthe other parent.

A “seed of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL” refers to a lettuce seed whichcan be grown into a plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, wherein arepresentative sample of viable seeds of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTLhas been deposited under Accession Number NCIMB ______. A seed can be inany stage of maturity, for example, a mature, viable seed, or animmature non-viable seed. A seed comprises an embryo and maternaltissues.

An “embryo of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL” refers to an embryo aspresent in a seed of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, a representativesample of said seed of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL having beendeposited under Accession Number NCIMB ______.

A “seed grown on lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL” refers to a seed grownon a mature plant of variety NUN 06176 LTL. The “seed grown on lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL” contains tissues and DNA of the maternal parent,lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. The “seed grown on lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL” contains an F1 embryo. When said seed is planted, it growsinto a first generation progeny plant of variety NUN 06176 LTL. Sincelettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL is an inbred variety and thus highlyhomozygous, the set of chromosomes inherited by the first generation ispredictable.

An “essentially homogeneous population of lettuce seed” is a populationof seeds where at least 97%, 98%, 99% or more of the total population ofseeds are seeds of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

An “essentially homogeneous population of lettuce plants” is apopulation of plants where at least 97%, 97%, 99% or more of the totalpopulation of plants are plants of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

The phrase “essentially free from other seed” refers to a population ofseeds where less than 3%, 2%, 1%, or even less, of the total populationof seed is seed that is not a lettuce seed or, in another option, lessthan 3%, 2%, 1%, or less, of the total population of seed is seed thatis not a seed of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

“Cotyledon” refers to one of the first leaves of the embryo of a seedplant.

“Head” as used herein refers to lettuce heads, i.e., the plant withoutthe root system, for example, substantially all harvested leaves.Encompassed are immature leaves (e.g., “baby leaf”) and mature leaves.

The “base” of a plant is the part of a lettuce plant where the leavesare attached to the root system of the plant.

“Core length” of the internal lettuce stem is measured from the base ofthe cut and trimmed head to the tip of the stem.

“Core Length to Head Diameter Ratio (CLHD Ratio)” refers to the meancore length/head diameter ratio. It is calculated by dividing the meancore length with the mean head diameter. This is an indication of thehead shape and of the ability of a lettuce plant to reduce the amount ofsurface which is on or close to the ground.

“Head weight” refers to the mean weight of saleable lettuce head, cut,and trimmed to market specifications.

“Head diameter” refers to the mean diameter of the cut and trimmed head,sliced vertically, and measured at the widest point perpendicular to thestem.

“Head height” refers to the mean height of the cut and trimmed head,sliced vertically, and measured from the base of the cut stem to theleaf tip.

“Harvested plant material” refers herein to plant parts (e.g., leaves orheads detached from the whole plant) which have been collected forfurther storage and/or further use.

“Harvested seeds” refers to seeds harvested from a line or variety,e.g., produced after self-fertilization or cross-fertilization andcollected.

“First water date” refers to the date the seed first receives adequatemoisture to germinate. This can and often does equal the planting date.

“Maturity date” refers to the stage when the plants are of full size oroptimum weight, in marketable form or shape to be of commercial oreconomic value. This is also the time when measuring parameters of“mature” leaves.

“Yield” means the total weight of all lettuce heads or leaves harvestedper hectare of a particular line or variety. It is understood that“yield” expressed as weight of all lettuce heads or leaves harvested perhectare can be obtained by multiplying the number of plants per hectaretimes the “yield per plant.”

“Marketable yield” means the total weight of all marketable lettuceheads or leaves harvested per hectare of a particular line or variety,e.g., lettuce heads or leaves suitable for being sold for freshconsumption, having good color, glossiness size and texture and no orvery low levels of deficiencies. A “marketable lettuce head or leaf” isa head or leaf that has commercial value.

“USDA descriptors” are the plant variety descriptors described forlettuce in the “Objective description of Variety—Lettuce (Lactuca sativaL.),” as published by U.S. Department of Agriculture, AgriculturalMarketing Service, Science and Technology, Plant Variety ProtectionOffice (June 2015, revised December 2018), and which can be downloadedfrom the world-wide web at ams.usda.gov/ underservices/plant-variety-protection/pvpo-c-forms under lettuce. “Non-USDAdescriptors” are other descriptors suitable for describing lettuce.

“UPOV descriptors” are the plant variety descriptors described forlettuce in the “Guidelines for the Conduct of Tests for Distinctness,Uniformity and Stability,” TG/13/11 (Revised 2019 Jun. 14), as publishedby UPOV (International Union for the Protection of New Varieties andPlants) and which can be downloaded from the world-wide web atupov.int/under edocs/tgdocs/en/tg013.pdf, which is hereby incorporatedby reference in its entirety. Likewise, “UPOV methods” to determinespecific parameters for the characterization of lettuce are described atupov.int.

“Calibration Manual: DUS Test for Lettuce” refers to the calibrationbook for lettuce which provides guidance for describing a lettucevariety, as published by Naktuinbow (Netherlands) and NationalAgriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO Japan) (Dec. 26, 2016)and based on the UPOV Guideline TG/13/10 Rev. 2

“RHS” or “RHS color” refers to the color chart of the RoyalHorticultural Society (UK), which publishes a botanical color chartquantitatively identifying colors according to a defined numberingsystem. The chart may be purchased from Royal Horticulture SocietyEnterprise Ltd RHS Garden; Wisley, Woking; Surrey GU236QB, UK, e.g., theRHS color chart 2007.

“Reference Variety” refers herein to variety NUN 06117 LTL, a varietyfrom Nunhems B.V. with commercial name Vicious, which has been plantedin a trial together with lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. Thecharacteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL were compared with thecharacteristics of the Reference Variety as shown in Tables 1 and 2. Thedistinguishing characteristics between lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL andthe Reference Variety are shown in Table 3.

A plant having “all the physiological and morphological characteristics”of a referred-to-plant means a plant showing the physiological andmorphological characteristics of the referred-to-plant when grown underthe same environmental conditions, preferably in the same experiment;the referred-to-plant can be a plant from which it was derived, e.g.,the progenitor plant, the progenitor parent, the recurrent parent, theplant used for tissue- or cell culture, etc. A physiological ormorphological characteristic can be a numerical characteristic or anon-numerical characteristic. In one aspect, a plant has “all but one,two, or three of the physiological and morphological characteristics” ofa referred-to-plant, or “all the physiological and morphologicalcharacteristics” of Tables 1-2 or “all or all but one, two, or three ofthe physiological and morphological characteristics” of Tables 1-2.

The physiological and/or morphological characteristics mentioned aboveare commonly evaluated at significance levels of 1%, 5%, or 10% if theyare numerical (quantitative), or for having an identical degree (ortype) if not numerical (not quantitative), if measured under the sameenvironmental conditions. For example, a progeny plant or a single locusconverted plant or a mutated plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL mayhave one or more (or all) of the essential physiological and/ormorphological characteristics of said variety listed in Tables 1-2, asdetermined at the 5% significance level (i.e., p<0.05) for quantitativecharacteristics and determined by type/degree for non-quantitativecharacteristics, when grown under the same environmental conditions.

“Distinguishing characteristics” or “distinguishing morphological and/orphysiological characteristics” refers herein to the characteristicswhich distinguish a new variety from other lettuce varieties (i.e., aredifferent), when grown under the same environmental conditions. Thedistinguishing characteristics between lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL andthe Reference Variety are described Table 3. When comparing lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL with different varieties, the distinguishingcharacteristics may be different. In one aspect, the distinguishingcharacteristics may therefore include at least one, two, three or more(or all) of the characteristics listed in Tables 1-2. All numericaldistinguishing characteristics are statistically significantly differentat p<0.05 between lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL and the other variety(e.g., the Reference Variety).

Lettuce Variety NUN 06176 LTL has the following distinguishingcharacteristics when compared to the Reference Variety as shown in Table3: 1) black seed color; 2) smaller plant head diameter; 3) more leaves;4) smaller plant spread of frame leaves; 5) shorter plant height; 6)lighter plant height; 7) dark purple fourth leaf color; 8) shorterfourth leaf length; 9) smaller fourth leaf width; 10) less erect matureleaf attitude; 11) very strong anthocyanin coloration; 12) purplishanthocyanin hue; 13) very large area of the leaf covered by anthocyanin;14) reddish purple mature leaf color; 15) very light intensity of greencolor of mature leaf, 16) larger mature leaf blisters; 17) moreundulation of mature leaf margin; 18) semi-flabellate mature leafvenation; 19) shorter mature leaf length; 20) smaller mature leaf width;21) smaller mature leaf size; 22) entire distribution of anthocyanin;23) diffused kind of anthocyanin distribution; 24) flat butt shape; 25)longer height of base of head to apex (core length); and 26) thinnerdiameter at base of head (core width), when grown under the sameenvironmental conditions.

Thus, a lettuce plant “comprising the distinguishing characteristics oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL” (such as a progeny plant) refers hereinto a plant which does not differ from said variety in the distinguishingcharacteristics above. Therefore, in one aspect, the disclosure providesa plant that does not differ from lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL in thedistinguishing characteristics above.

Similarity and differences between two different plant lines orvarieties can be determined by comparing the number of morphologicaland/or physiological characteristics that are the same (i.e.,statistically not significantly different) or that are different (i.e.,statistically significantly different) between the two plant lines orvarieties when grown under the same environmental conditions. Anumerical characteristic is considered to be “the same” when the valuefor a numeric characteristic is not significantly different at the 1%(p<0.01) or 5% (p<0.05) significance level for plants grown under thesame environmental conditions, using T-test Paired Two Sample for Means,a standard method known to the skilled person. A non-numericalcharacteristic is considered to be “the same” when the values have thesame “degree” or “type” when scored using USDA and/or UPOV descriptors,for plants are grown under the same environmental conditions.

In one aspect, a statistical analysis of the quantitativecharacteristics showing the degree of significance may be provided.Statistical significance is the likelihood that a relationship betweentwo or more variables is caused by something other than chance, i.e.,that the differences in the means for quantitative characteristics oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL and the Reference Variety are significantor due to chance. For the purpose of proving differences or distinctionbetween lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL and the Reference Variety, ap-value of 5% (or 0.05) or lower is considered statisticallysignificant. This means that there is only a 5% probability that theobserved result could have happened just by chance or random variation.

The statistical analysis is drawn from a small sample of at least 20plants or plants parts of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL and theReference Variety grown in the same environmental conditions.Statistical points or parameters such as mean, minimum, median, maximum,and standard deviation are collected from the sample data to analyzewhere the average is, how varied the data set is, and whether the datais skewed. For the purpose of determining whether the result of a dataset is statistically significant, a T-test Paired Sample Means is used,a statistical tool for proving significance in the means of the twogroups (e.g., lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL and the Reference Variety)at 5% significance level (p-value of 5% or 0.05).

The term “traditional breeding techniques” encompasses herein crossing,selfing, selection, doubled haploid production, embryo rescue,protoplast fusion, marker assisted selection, mutation breeding etc. asknown to the breeder (e.g., methods other than geneticmodification/transformation/transgenic methods, e.g., gene editing), bywhich, for example, a genetically heritable trait can be transferredfrom one lettuce line or variety to another.

“Variety” or “cultivar” means a plant grouping within a single botanicaltaxon of the lowest known rank.

“Plant line” is, for example, an inbred variety or a breeding line whichcan be used to develop one or more varieties. Both are typically highlyhomozygous. Progeny obtained by selfing such a plant line has the samephenotype as its parents.

“Inbred variety” refers to an inbred (nearly homozygous) line or seedsthereof. For example, the (nearly homozygous) plant is self-pollinatedor the (nearly homozygous) female parent is pollinated with pollen ofthe same plant line to produce inbred seeds on the female parent.

“Progeny” as used herein refers to a plant obtained from a plantdesignated NUN 06176 LTL. A progeny may be obtained by regeneration ofcell culture or tissue culture or parts of a plant of said variety orselfing of a plant of said variety or by producing seeds of a plant ofsaid variety. In further aspects, progeny may also encompass plantsobtained from crossing of at least one plant of said variety withanother lettuce plant of the same or another variety or line, or wildlettuce plants. A progeny may comprise a mutation or a transgene. A“first generation progeny” is the progeny is directly derived from,obtained from, obtainable from or derivable from the parent plant by,e.g., traditional breeding methods (selfing and/or cross-pollinating) orregeneration (optionally combined with transformation or mutation).Thus, a plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL is the male parent, thefemale parent, or both of a first generation progeny of lettuce varietyNUN 06176 LTL. Progeny may have all of the physiological andmorphological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL whengrown under the same environmental conditions. Using methods such asbackcrossing, recurrent selection, mutation or transformation, one ormore specific characteristics may be introduced into said variety, or toa plant comprising all but one, two, or three of the morphological andphysiological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

“Tissue Culture” refers to a composition comprising isolated cells ofthe same or a different type or a collection of such cells organizedinto parts of a plant. Tissue culture of various tissues of lettuce andregeneration of plants therefrom is well known and widely published(see, e.g., Teng et al., HortScience. 1992, 27(9): 1030-1032; Teng etal., HortScience. 1993, 28(6): 669-1671; Zhang et al., Journal ofGenetics and Breeding. 1992, 46(3): 287-290). Similarly, methods ofpreparing cell cultures are known in the art.

“Vegetative propagation,” “vegetative reproduction,” or “clonalpropagation” are used interchangeably herein and mean the method oftaking part of a plant and allowing that plant part to form at leastroots, and also refer to the plant or plantlet obtained by that method.Optionally, the vegetative propagation is grown into a mature plant.

“Regeneration” refers to the development of a plant from cell culture ortissue culture or vegetative propagation.

“Crossing” refers to the mating of two parent plants. The termencompasses “cross-pollination” and “selfing.”

“Selfing” refers to self-pollination of a plant, i.e., the transfer ofpollen from the anther to the stigma of the same plant.

“Cross-pollination” refers to the fertilization by the union of twogametes from different plants.

“Backcrossing” is a traditional breeding technique used to introduce atrait into a plant line or variety. The plant containing the trait iscalled the donor plant and the plant into which the trait is transferredis called the recurrent parent. An initial cross is made between thedonor parent and the recurrent parent to produce a progeny plant.Progeny plants which have the trait are then crossed to the recurrentparent. After several generations of backcrossing and/or selfing therecurrent parent comprises the trait of the donor. The plant generatedin this way may be referred to as a “single trait converted plant.” Thetechnique can also be used on a parental line of a hybrid.

The terms “gene converted,” “conversion plant,” or “single locusconverted plant” in this context refer to lettuce plants which aredeveloped by traditional backcrossing techniques, e.g., backcrossing, orvia genetic engineering (e.g., gene editing) or through mutationbreeding, wherein essentially all of the desired morphological andphysiological characteristics of parent variety or line are recovered,in addition to the one or more characteristics introduced into theparent via e.g., backcrossing technique (optionally including reversesynthesis of breeding line). It is understood that only the addition ofa further characteristic (e.g., addition of gene conferring a furthercharacteristic, such as a disease resistance gene), but also thereplacement/modification of an existing characteristic by a differentcharacteristic is encompassed herein (e.g., a mutant allele of a genecan modify the phenotype of a characteristic).

Likewise, a “Single Locus Converted (Conversion) Plant” refers to plantsdeveloped by plant breeding techniques comprising or consisting ofmutation breeding and/or by genetic transformation (e.g., gene editing)and/or by traditional breeding techniques, such as backcrossing, whereinessentially all of the desired morphological and physiologicalcharacteristics of a lettuce variety are recovered in addition to thecharacteristics of the single locus having been transferred into thevariety via the above-mentioned techniques, or wherein a morphologicaland physiological characteristic of the variety has beenreplaced/modified in the variety. In case of a hybrid, the gene may beintroduced, or modified, in the male or female parental line.

“Transgene” refers to a genetic locus comprising a DNA sequence whichhas been introduced into the genome of a lettuce plant bytransformation. A plant comprising a transgene stably integrated intoits genome is referred to as “transgenic plant.”

“Locus” (plural loci) refers to the specific location of a gene or DNAsequence on a chromosome. A locus may confer a specific trait.

“Genotype” refers to the genetic composition of a cell or organism.

“Allele” refers to one or more alternative forms of a gene locus. All ofthese loci relate to one trait. Sometimes, different alleles can resultin different observable phenotypic traits, such as differentpigmentation. However, many variations at the genetic level result inlittle or no observable variation.

As used herein, the terms “resistance” and “tolerance” are usedinterchangeably to describe plants that show no symptoms orsignificantly reduced symptoms to a specified biotic pest, pathogen,abiotic influence or environmental condition compared to a susceptibleplant. These terms are optionally also used to describe plants showingsome symptoms but that are still able to produce marketable product withan acceptable yield.

“Average” refers herein to the arithmetic mean.

The term “mean” refers to the arithmetic mean of several measurements.The mean, if not indicated otherwise within this application, refers tothe arithmetic mean of measurements on at least 20 different, randomlyselected plants of a variety or line.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE DISCLOSURE

The disclosure relates to the plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL,wherein a representative sample of seeds of said variety has beendeposited under Budapest Treaty, with Accession Number NCIMB ______. NUN06176 LTL is a romaine short day lettuce variety for the Mediterraneancool autumn and is suitable for growing in the open field.

In another aspect, the plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, or partthereof, or a progeny thereof comprises resistance to Downy Mildew(Bremia lactucae) Isolates Bl:16-25EU and Bl:28-30EU, measured accordingto UPOV standards described in TG/13/11.

The disclosure also provides a lettuce plant or part thereof having allof the physiological and morphological characteristics of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL, when grown under the same environmentalconditions.

The disclosure also provides a plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL ora progeny plant thereof comprising all of the morphological and/orphysiological characteristics (i.e., average values, as indicated on theUSDA Objective Description of variety—lettuce (unless indicatedotherwise)) as shown in Tables 1-2, when grown under the sameenvironmental conditions. A part of this plant is also provided.

The disclosure further provides a lettuce plant which does not differfrom the physiological and morphological characteristics of the plant oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, as determined at the 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, or5% significance level for numerical characteristics and determined bydegree/type for non-numerical characteristics, when grown under the sameenvironmental conditions. In a particular aspect, the plants aremeasured in the same trial (e.g., the trial is conducted as recommendedby the USDA or UPOV). The disclosure also comprises part of said plant,preferably a leaf or a part thereof.

The morphological and/or physiological differences between two differentindividual plants described herein (e.g., between lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL and a progeny of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL) or between aplant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL or progeny of said variety, or aplant having all, or all but 1, 2, or 3 of the physiological andmorphological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL (or all,or all but 1, 2, or 3 of the characteristics as listed in Tables 1-2)and another known variety can easily be established by growing saidvariety next to the each other or next to the other variety (e.g., inthe same field, under the same environmental conditions), preferably inseveral locations which are suitable for said lettuce cultivation, andmeasuring morphological and/or physiological characteristics of a numberof plants (e.g., to calculate an average value and to determine thevariation range/uniformity within the variety). For example, trials canbe carried out in Acampo Calif., USA (N 38 degrees 07′261″/W 121 degrees18′ 807″, USA), whereby various characteristics, for example, plantheight, plant head diameter, plant weight, leaf attitude, number of leafdivisions, leaf shape, leaf color, leaf glossiness, leaf thickness, leafblistering, undulation of margin, leaf venation, head size, head shape,harvest maturity, bolting, disease resistance, insect resistance, andresistance to physiological stress can be measured and directly comparedfor species of lettuce.

Thus, the disclosure comprises a lettuce plant having one, two, or threeof the physiological and/or morphological characteristics which aredifferent from those of the plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, andwhich otherwise has all of the physiological and morphologicalcharacteristics of the plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL (e.g., at5% significance level for numerical characteristics and identical (samedegree or type) for non-numerical characteristics) for plants grownunder the same environmental conditions. In one aspect, the differentcharacteristic(s) is/are a result of breeding with lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL and selection of a progeny plant comprising one, two, or threecharacteristics which are different than in lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL. In another aspect, the different characteristic is the result of amutation (e.g., spontaneous mutation or a human induced mutation throughe.g., targeted mutagenesis or traditional mutagenesis such as chemicallyor radiation induced mutagenesis), or it is the result oftransformation.

The disclosure also relates to lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, which whencompared to the Reference Variety has the following distinguishingcharacteristics as shown in Table 3: 1) black seed color; 2) smallerplant head diameter; 3) more leaves; 4) smaller plant spread of frameleaves; 5) shorter plant height; 6) lighter plant height; 7) dark purplefourth leaf color; 8) shorter fourth leaf length; 9) smaller fourth leafwidth; 10) less erect mature leaf attitude; 11) very strong anthocyanincoloration; 12) purplish anthocyanin hue; 13) very large area of theleaf covered by anthocyanin; 14) reddish purple mature leaf color; 15)very light intensity of green color of mature leaf, 16) larger matureleaf blisters; 17) more undulation of mature leaf margin; 18)semi-flabellate mature leaf venation; 19) shorter mature leaf length;20) smaller mature leaf width; 21) smaller mature leaf size; 22) entiredistribution of anthocyanin; 23) diffused kind of anthocyanindistribution; 24) flat butt shape; 25) longer height of base of head toapex (core length); and 26) thinner diameter at base of head (corewidth), when the numerical characteristics are determined at the 5%significance level and determined by type or degree for non-numericalcharacteristics for plants grown under the same environmentalconditions. Also encompassed are parts of that plant.

The disclosure also relates to a seed of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL,wherein a representative sample of said seed has been deposited underthe Budapest Treaty with Accession Number NCMB ______.

In another aspect, a seed of hybrid variety NUN 06176 LTL is obtainableby crossing the male parent of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL with thefemale parent of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL and harvesting the seedsproduced on the female parent. The resultant seed of said variety can begrown to produce plants of said variety.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a lettuce plant grown from aseed of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL and a plant part thereof.

The disclosure also provides a lettuce head and/or a lettuce leafproduced on a plant grown from a seed of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides for a plant part of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL, preferably a head or a leaf, a representativesample of seed from said variety has been deposited under AccessionNumber NCIMB ______.

Also provided is a plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, or a head ora leaf or other plant part thereof, produced from a seed, wherein arepresentative sample of said seeds has been deposited under theBudapest Treaty, with Accession Number NCIMB ______.

Also provided is a plant part obtained from variety NUN 06176 LTL,wherein said plant part is a leaf, a part of a leaf, a head, a part of ahead, a fruit, a part of a fruit, pollen, an ovule, a cell, a petiole, ashoot or a part thereof, a stem or a part thereof, a root or a partthereof, a root tip, a cutting, a seed, a part of a seed, seed coat, oranother maternal tissue which is part of a seed grown on a said variety,a hypocotyl, a cotyledon, a pistil, an anther, or a flower or a partthereof. Such plant parts may be suitable for sexual reproduction (e.g.,pollen, a flower, an ovary, an ovule, an embryo, etc.), vegetativereproduction (e.g., a cutting, a root, a stem, a cell, a protoplast, aleaf, a cotyledon, a meristem, etc.), or tissue culture (e.g., a leaf, apollen, an embryo, a cotyledon, a hypocotyl, a cell, a root, a root tip,an anther, a flower, a seed, a stem, etc.). Heads and leaves areparticularly important plant parts.

In a further aspect, the plant part obtained from variety NUN 06176 LTLis a cell, optionally a cell in a cell or tissue culture. The cell maybe grown into a plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. A part oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL (or of a progeny of that variety or of aplant having all of the physiological and morphological characteristicsbut one, two, or three of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL) furtherencompasses any cells, tissues, organs obtainable from the seedlings orplants in any stage of maturity.

The disclosure also provides a tissue or cell culture comprisingregenerable cells of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. Such tissue culturecan, for example, be grown on plates or in liquid culture or be frozenfor long term storage. The cells of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL usedto start the culture can be any plant part suitable for vegetativereproduction, or, in a particular aspect, can be one or more of: anembryo, a meristem, a cotyledon, a hypocotyl, a pollen, a leaf, ananther, a root, a root tip, a petiole, a flower, a fruit, a seed, or astem. In another particular aspect, the tissue culture does not containsomaclonal variation or has reduced somaclonal variation. The skilledperson is familiar with methods to reduce or prevent somaclonalvariation, including regular reinitiation.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a lettuce plant regeneratedfrom the tissue or cell culture of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL,wherein the regenerated plant is not different from lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL in all, or all but one, two, or three, of the physiologicaland morphological characteristics (e.g., determined at the 5%significance level for numerical characteristics and determined bydegree/type for non-numerical characteristics) when grown under the sameenvironmental conditions. Optionally, the plant has one, two, or threephysiological or morphological characteristic that is different fromlettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, wherein the difference or modification iseffected by mutation or transformation with a transgene.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a lettuce plant regeneratedfrom the tissue or cell culture of variety NUN 06176 LTL, wherein theplant has all or all but one, two, or three of the physiological andmorphological characteristics of said variety (e.g., determined at the5% significance level for numerical characteristics and determined bydegree/type for non-numerical characteristics) when grown under the sameenvironmental conditions. Similarity or difference of a characteristicis determined by measuring the characteristics of a representativenumber of plants grown under the same environmental conditions,determining whether type/degree characteristics are the same anddetermining whether numerical characteristics are different at the 5%significance level.

Lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, or its progeny, or a plant having allphysiological and/or morphological characteristics or all but one, two,or three which are different from those of lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL, can also be reproduced using vegetative reproduction methods.Therefore, the disclosure provides for a method of producing a plant orplant part of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, comprising vegetativereproduction of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. Vegetative propagationcomprises regenerating a whole plant from a plant part of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL or from a progeny or from a plant having all ofthe physiological and morphological characteristics of said variety orall but one, two, or three different characteristics, such as a cutting,a cell culture, or a tissue culture.

The disclosure also provides methods of vegetatively propagating a partof the plant of variety NUN 06176 LTL. In certain aspects, the methodcomprises: (a) cultivating tissue or cells capable of being propagatedfrom lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL to obtain proliferated shoots; and(b) rooting said proliferated shoots, to obtain rooted plantlets. Steps(a) and (b) may also be reversed, i.e., first cultivating said tissue toobtain roots and then cultivating the tissue to obtain shoots, therebyobtaining rooted plantlets. The rooted plantlets may then be furthergrown, to obtain plant. In one aspect, the method further comprises (c)growing plants from said rooted plantlets. Therefore, the method alsocomprises regenerating a whole plant from a part of lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL. In a particular aspect, the part to be propagated is acutting, a cell culture, or a tissue culture.

The disclosure also provides for a vegetatively propagated plant ofvariety NUN 06176 LTL (or from progeny of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTLor from a plant having all but one, two, or three of the physiologicaland/or morphological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL),wherein the plant has all of the physiological and morphologicalcharacteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL (e.g., determined atthe 5% significance level for numerical characteristics and determinedby type/degree for non-numerical characteristics) for plants grown underthe same environmental conditions. In another aspect, the propagatedplant has all but one, two, or three of the physiological andmorphological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL (e.g.,determined at the 5% significance level for numerical characteristicsand determined by type/degree for non-numerical characteristics) forplants grown under the same environmental conditions. A part of saidpropagated plant or said propagated plant with one, two, or threedifferences is also provided. In another aspect, the propagated planthas all or all but one, two, or three of the physiological andmorphological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL (e.g., aslisted in Tables 1-2).

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a method for producing alettuce plant part, preferably a head or a leaf, comprising growing aplant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL until it develops at least oneleaf or develops a head, and optionally collecting the head or leaf.Preferably, the head or leaf is collected at harvest maturity. Inanother aspect, the leaf is collected at baby leaf stage.

In another aspect, a plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL can beproduced by seeding directly in the soil (e.g., field) or by germinatingthe seeds in controlled environment conditions (e.g., greenhouses,hydroponic cultures, etc.) and optionally transplanting the seedlingsinto the field (see, e.g., Gonai et al., J. of Exp. Bot., 55(394): 111,2004; Turini, et. al., University of California Agricultural and NaturalResources, 2011, Publication 7215, 1-6; Smith, et. al., University ofCalifornia Agricultural and Natural Resources, 2011, Publication 7216,1-6). Lettuce may also be grown in tunnels. Moreover, said variety canbe grown in hydroponic cultures as described in, e.g., US2008/0222949,which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety,and the skilled person is familiar with various types of hydroponiccultures. Alternatively, seed of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL may begrown on peat block for use as root ball lettuce. Furthermore, saidvariety may be combined with 1, 2 or 3 different lettuce varieties to begrown as “composite lettuce” (see, e.g., EP 1197137, which is hereinincorporated by reference in its entirety).

In still another aspect, the disclosure provides a method of producing alettuce plant, comprising crossing a plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL with a second lettuce plant at least once, allowing the seed todevelop and optionally harvesting said progeny seed. The skilled personcan select a progeny lettuce plant from said crossing. Optionally, theprogeny (grown from the progeny seed) is crossed twice, thrice, or four,six, or seven times, and allowed to set seed. In one aspect, the first“crossing” further comprises planting seeds of a first and a secondparent lettuce plant, often in proximity so that pollination will occur,for example, mediated by insect vectors. Alternatively, pollen can betransferred manually. Where the plant is self-pollinated, pollinationmay occur without the need for direct human intervention other thanplant cultivation. After pollination, the plant can produce seed.

The disclosure also provides a method for collecting pollen of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL, comprising collecting pollen from a plant ofvariety NUN 06176 LTL. Alternatively, the method comprises growing aplant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL until at least one flowercontains pollen and collecting the pollen. In a particular aspect, thepollen is collected when it is mature or ripe. A suitable method forcollecting pollen comprises collecting anthers or the part of the antherthat contains pollen, for example, by cutting the anther or the part ofthe anther off. Pollen can be collected in a container. Optionally,collected pollen can be used to pollinate a lettuce flower.

In yet another aspect, the disclosure provides a method of producing alettuce plant, comprising selfing a plant of variety NUN 06176 LTL oneor more times, and selecting a progeny plant from said selfing. In oneaspect, the progeny plant retains all or all but one, two, or three ofthe physiological and morphological characteristics of lettuce varietyNUN 06176 LTL when grown under the same environmental conditions. In adifferent aspect, the progeny plant comprises all (or all but one, twoor three) of the physiological and morphological characteristic oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL of Tables 1-2.

The disclosure also provides a method for developing a lettuce plant ina lettuce breeding program, using lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, or itsparts as a source of plant breeding material. Suitable plant breedingtechniques are recurrent selection, backcrossing, pedigree breeding,mass selection, mutation breeding, genetic marker enhanced selection,and/or genetic transformation. In one aspect, the method comprisescrossing lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL or progeny of said variety, or aplant comprising all but 1, 2, or 3 or more of the morphological andphysiological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL (e.g., aslisted in Tables 1-2) with a different lettuce plant, and wherein one ormore offspring of the crossing are subject to one or more plant breedingtechniques: recurrent selection, backcrossing, pedigree breeding, massselection, mutation breeding, genetic marker enhanced selection, genetictransformation (see, e.g., Brotman et al., Theor Appl Genet (2002)104:1055-1063). For breeding methods in general, see, e.g., Acquaah,Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding, 2007, Blackwell Publishing,ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-2646-4.

In other aspects, the disclosure provides for a progeny plant of varietyNUN 06176 LTL such as a progeny plant obtained by further breeding oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. Further breeding with said varietyincludes selfing and/or cross-pollinating lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTLwith another lettuce plant or variety one or more times. In a particularaspect, the disclosure provides for a progeny plant that retains all ofthe morphological and physiological characteristics of lettuce varietyNUN 06176 LTL, optionally all or all but one, two, or threecharacteristics as listed in Tables 1-2, determined at the 5%significance level for numerical characteristics and determined bytype/degree for non-numerical characteristics, when grown under the sameenvironmental conditions. In another aspect, the progeny is a firstgeneration progeny, i.e., the ovule or the pollen (or both) used in thecrossing is an ovule or pollen of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, wherethe pollen comes from an anther of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL and theovule comes from an ovary of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

In another aspect, the plant and plant parts of lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL and progeny of said variety are provided, e.g., grown fromseeds, produced by sexual or vegetative reproduction, regenerated fromthe above-described plant parts, or regenerated from a cell or tissueculture of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, in which the reproduced (seedpropagated or vegetatively propagated) plant has all of thephysiological and morphological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL, e.g., as listed in Tables 1-2. In one aspect, said progeny oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL can be modified in one, two, or threecharacteristics, in which the modification is a result of mutagenesis ortransformation with a transgene.

In one aspect, pedigree selection is used as a breeding method fordeveloping a lettuce variety. Pedigree selection is also known as the“Vilmorin System of Selection,” see, e.g., Allard, John Wiley & Sons,Inc., 1999, 64-67. In general, selection is first practiced among F2plants. In the next season, the most desirable F3 lines are firstidentified, then desirable F3 plants within each line are selected. Thefollowing season and in all subsequent generations of inbreeding, themost desirable families are identified first, then desirable lineswithin the selected families are chosen. A family refers to lines thatwere derived from plants selected from the same progeny from thepreceding generation.

Using pedigree method, two parents may be crossed using an emasculatedfemale and a pollen donor (male) to produce F1 offspring. Lettuce is anobligate self-pollination species, which means that pollen is shedbefore stigma emergence, assuring 100% self-fertilization. Therefore, inorder to optimize crossing, a method of misting may be used to wash thepollen off prior to fertilization to assure crossing or hybridization.The F1 may be self-pollinated to produce segregating F2 generation.Individual plants may then be selected which represent the desiredphenotype in each generation (F3, F4, F5, etc.) until the traits arehomozygous or fixed within a breeding population.

Thus, progeny in connection with pedigree selection are either thegeneration (seeds) produced from the first cross (F1) or selfing (S1),or any further generation produced by crossing and/or selfing (F2, F3,F4, F5, F6, F7, etc.) and/or backcrossing (BC1, BC2, BC3, BC4, BC5, BC6,BC7, etc.) one or more selected plants of the F1 and/or S1 and/or BC1generation (or plants of any further generation, e.g., the F2) withanother lettuce plant (an/or with wild relative of lettuce).

In yet another aspect, the disclosure provides for a method of producinga new lettuce plant. The method comprises crossing lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL, or a plant of comprising all but 1, 2, or 3 of themorphological and physiological characteristics of said lettuce variety(as listed in Tables 1-2), or a progeny plant thereof, either as male oras female parent, with a second lettuce plant (or a wild relative oflettuce) one or more times, and/or selfing a lettuce plant of varietyNUN 06176 LTL, or a progeny plant thereof, one or more times, andselecting progeny from said crossing and/or selfing. The second lettuceplant may, for example, be a line or variety of the species Lactucasativa, or other Lactuca species.

In a further aspect, lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL is used in crosseswith other, different, lettuce varieties to produce first generation(F1) lettuce hybrid seeds and plants with superior characteristics. In aparticular aspect, the disclosure provides a method a producing a hybridlettuce seed comprising crossing a first parent lettuce plant with asecond parent lettuce plant and harvesting the resultant seed, in whichthe first parent lettuce plant or second parent lettuce plant is lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL. Also provided is a hybrid lettuce seed producedfrom crossing a first parent lettuce plant with a second parent lettuceplant and harvesting the resultant hybrid lettuce seed, wherein saidfirst parent lettuce plant or second parent lettuce plant is lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL. In a further aspect, the hybrid lettuce plantproduce from the hybrid lettuce seed is provided.

The morphological and physiological characteristics (and thedistinguishing characteristics) of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL areprovided, for example, in Tables 1-2. Encompassed herein is also a plantobtainable from lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL (e.g., by selfing and/orcrossing and/or backcrossing with said variety and/or progeny of saidvariety) comprising all or all but one, two or three of thephysiological and morphological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL listed in Tables 1-2 (e.g., determined at the 5% significancelevel for numerical characteristics and determined by type/degree fornon-numerical characteristics) when grown under the same environmentalconditions and/or comprising one or more (or all; or all except one, twoor three) when grown under the same environmental conditions. Themorphological and/or physiological characteristics may vary somewhatwith variation in the environment (e.g., temperature, light intensity,day length, humidity, soil, fertilizer use), which is why a comparisonunder the same environmental conditions is preferred. Colors can best bemeasured against the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chart.

In another aspect, a seed of inbred variety NUN 06176 LTL is obtainableby selfing the variety and harvesting the seeds produced. The resultantseeds can be grown to produce plants of said variety.

In still another aspect, the disclosure provides a method of producing aplant derived from lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, the method comprising:(a) preparing a progeny plant derived from lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTLby crossing a plant of variety NUN 06176 LTL either as a male or femaleparent with a second plant or selfing lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL orvegetative reproduction of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, and (b)collecting seeds from said crossing or selfing or regenerating a wholeplant from the vegetative cell- or tissue culture. Also provided areseeds and/or plants obtained by this method. All plants produced usinglettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL as a parent are within the scope of thedisclosure, including plant parts derived from lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL.

In further aspects, the method comprises growing a progeny plant of asubsequent generation from said seed of a progeny plant of a subsequentgeneration and crossing the progeny plant of a subsequent generationwith itself or a second plant and repeating the steps for an additional3-10 generations to produce a plant derived from lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL. The plant derived from lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL may bean inbred line and the aforementioned repeating crossing steps may bedefined as comprising sufficient inbreeding to produce the inbred line.By selecting plants having one or more desirable traits, a plant derivedfrom lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL is obtained which has some of thedesirable traits of the line as well as potentially other selectedtraits.

The disclosure provides for methods of producing plants which retain allthe morphological and physiological characteristics of a plant describedherein. The disclosure also provides for methods of producing a plantcomprising all but 1, 2, or 3 or more of the morphological andphysiological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL (e.g., aslisted in Tables 1-2), but which are still genetically closely relatedto said variety. The relatedness can, for example, be determined byfingerprinting techniques (e.g., making use of isozyme markers and/ormolecular markers such as Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers,amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers, microsatellites,minisatellites, Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers,restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers and others). Aplant is “closely related” to lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL if its DNAfingerprint is at least 80%, 90%, 95% or 98% identical to thefingerprint of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. In a particular aspect,AFLP markers are used for DNA fingerprinting (see, e.g., Vos et al.1995, Nucleic Acid Research 23: 4407-4414). A closely related plant mayhave a Jaccard's Similarity index of at least about 0.95 or 0.96 or more(see, e.g., “Guidelines for the Handling of a Dispute on EssentialDerivation in Lettuce” atworldseed.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/GuidelinesEDV_Lettuce_2004.pdf). the disclosure also provides a plant and avariety obtained or selected by applying these methods on lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL. Such a plant may be produced by crossing and/orselfing, or alternatively, a plant may simply be identified and selectedamongst plants of said variety, or progeny of said variety, e.g., byidentifying a variant within lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL or progeny ofsaid variety (e.g., produced by selfing) which variant differs fromlettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL in one, two or three of the morphologicaland/or physiological characteristics (e.g., characteristics listed inTables 1-2). In one aspect, the disclosure provides a plant of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL having a Jaccard's Similarity index with saidvariety of at least 0.95, 0.96, 0.97, 0.98 or even at least 0.99.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a lettuce plant comprisinggenomic DNA having at least 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, or 99% sequence identitycompared to the genomic DNA sequence of a plant of lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL as deposited under Accession Number NCIMB ______. In anotheraspect, the lettuce plant further comprises all or all but one, two, orthree of the physiological and morphological characteristics of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL (e.g., as listed in Tables 1-2). In other aspects,the lettuce plant comprises the distinguishing characteristics oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

For the purpose of this disclosure, the “sequence identity” ornucleotide sequences, expressed as a percentage, refers to the number ofpositions in the two optimally aligned sequences which have identicalresidues (×100) divided by the number of positions compared. A gap,i.e., a position in the pairwise length where a residue is present inone sequence but not in the other, is regarded as a position withnon-identical residues. A pairwise global sequence alignment of twonucleotide sequences is found by aligning the two consequences over theentire length according to the Needleman and Wunsch global alignmentalgorithm described in Needleman and Wunsch, 1970, J. Mol. Bio.48(3):443-53. A full implementation of the Needleman-Wunsch globalalignment algorithm is found in the needle program in The EuropeanMolecular Biology Open Software (see, EMBOSS, Rice, et. al., Trends inGenetics, June 2000, 16(6):276-77).

In another aspect, the plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL may alsobe mutated (by e.g., irradiation, chemical mutagenesis, heat treatment,etc.) and mutated seeds or plants may be selected in order to change oneor more characteristics of said variety. Methods such as TILLING(Targeting Induced Local Lesions in Genomes) may be applied to lettucepopulations in order to identify mutants.

Similarly, lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL may be transformed andregenerated, whereby one or more chimeric genes are introduced into thevariety or into a plant comprising all but one, two, or three of thephysiological and morphological characteristics (e.g., as listed inTables 1-2). Many useful traits can be introduced into lettuce varietyNUN 06176 LTL by e.g., crossing lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL with atransgenic lettuce plant comprising a desired transgene, as well as bydirectly introducing a transgene into lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL bygenetic transformation techniques.

Any pest or disease resistance genes may be introduced into lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL, progeny of said variety, or into a plantcomprising all but 1, 2, or 3 or more of the morphological andphysiological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL (e.g., aslisted in Tables 1-2). Resistance to one or more of the followingdiseases or pests may be introduced into the plant described herein:Rhizomonas suberifaciens (Corky root rot), Bremia lactucae (Downymildew), Erysiphe cichoracearum f. sp. lactucae (Powdery mildew),Sclerotinia minor and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lettuce Drop),Pseudomonas spp. (Bacterial Soft Rot), Botrytis cinerea (Grey Mold),Verticillium dahlia (Verticillium Wilt), Xanthomonas spp. (BacterialLeaf Spot), Microdochium panattonianum (Anthracnose), Fusarium oxysporumf. sp. lactucae, Rhizoctonia solani (Bottom Rot), Cabbage Loopers,Lettuce Root Aphid, Myzus persicae (Green Peach Aphid), Liriomyza langei(Pea Leafminer), Liriomyza trifolii (Serpentine Leafminer), Liriomyzasativae (Vegetable Leafminer), Foxglove Aphid, Potato Aphid, BeetArmyworm, Bemisia argentifolii (Silver Whitefly), and/or Aster Yellows.Other resistance genes, against pathogenic viruses (e.g., MirafioriLettuce Big Vein Virus (LMBVV), Lettuce Infectious Yellows Virus (LIYV),Lettuce Mosaic Virus (LMV), Lettuce Necrotic Stunt Virus (LNSV),Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV), Tomato Bushy Stunt Virus (Dieback), TomatoSpotted Wilt Virus (TSWV), Turnip Mosaic Virus, Beet Western YellowsVirus (BWYV), Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV)), fungi, bacteria, nematodes,insects or other pests may also be introduced. In one aspect, resistanceagainst Nasonovia ribisnigri biotype Nr:0 and/or Nr:1 may be introducedinto the plant disclosed herein. Also, any resistances to physiologicalstresses may be introduced into the plant described herein, or progenythereof or into a plant comprising all but 1, 2, or 3 or more of themorphological and physiological characteristics of said plant (e.g., aslisted in Tables 1-2). Resistance against one or more of the followingmay be introduced into the plant described herein: Tip burn, Heat,Drought, Cold, Salt and/or Brown rob (Rib Discoloration/Rib Blight).

Genetic transformation may, therefore, be used to insert a selectedtransgene into the lettuce plants of the disclosure described herein ormay, alternatively, be used for the preparation of transgenic lettuceplants which can be used as a source of the transgene(s), which can beintroduced into lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL by e.g., backcrossing. Agenetic trait which has been engineered into the genome of a particularlettuce plant may then be moved into the genome of another lettuce plant(e.g., another variety) using traditional breeding techniques which arewell known in the art. For example, backcrossing is commonly used tomove a transgene from a transformed lettuce variety into an alreadydeveloped lettuce variety and the resulting backcross conversion plantwill then comprise the transgene(s).

Any DNA sequences, whether from a different species or from the samespecies, which are inserted into the genome using transformation, arereferred to herein collectively as “transgenes.” A “transgene” alsoencompasses antisense, or sense and antisense sequences capable of genesilencing. Thus, the disclosure also relates to transgenic plants oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. In another aspect, a transgenic plant oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL may contain at least one transgene butcould also contain at least 1, 2, 3, 4, or more transgenes.

Plant transformation involves the construction of an expression vectorwhich will function in plant cells. Such a vector comprises DNAcomprising a gene under control of, or operatively linked to aregulatory element active in plant cells (e.g., promoter). Theexpression vector may contain one or more such operably linkedgene/regulatory element combinations. The vector may be in the form of aplasmid and can be used alone or in combination with other plasmids toprovide transformed lettuce plants using transformation methods toincorporate transgenes into the genetic material of the lettuceplant(s). Transformation can be carried out using standard methods, suchas Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation or biolistic,followed by selection of the transformed cells and regeneration intoplants.

Plants can also be genetically engineered, modified, or manipulated toexpress various phenotypes of horticultural interest. Through thetransformation of lettuce, the expression of genes can be altered toenhance disease resistance, insect resistance, herbicide resistance,stress tolerance, horticultural quality, and other traits.Transformation can also be used to insert DNA sequences which control orhelp control male sterility or fertility restoration. DNA sequencesnative to lettuce as well as non-native DNA sequences can be transformedinto lettuce and used to alter levels of native or non-native proteins.Various promoters, targeting sequences, enhancing sequences, and otherDNA sequences can be inserted into the genome for the purpose ofaltering the expression of proteins. Reduction of the activity ofspecific genes (also known as gene silencing or gene suppression) isdesirable for several aspects of genetic engineering in plants.

Genome editing is another method recently developed to geneticallyengineer plants. Specific modification of chromosomal loci or targetedmutation can be done through sequence-specific nucleases (SSNs) byintroducing a targeted DNA double strand break in the locus to bealtered. Examples of SSNs that have been applied to plants are: fingernucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases(TALENs), engineered homing endonucleases or meganucleases, andclustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats(CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9), see, e.g., Songstad, et.al., Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences, 2017, 36:1, 1-23.

Thus, the disclosure provides a method of producing a lettuce planthaving a desired trait, comprising mutating a plant or plant part ofvariety NUN 06176 LTL, optionally with a target gene, and selecting aplant the desired trait, wherein the mutated plant retains all or allbut one, two, or three of the physiological and morphologicalcharacteristics of said variety, optionally as described Tables 1-2, andcontains the desired trait, and wherein a representative sample of seedof variety NUN 06176 LTL has been deposited under Accession Number NCIMB______. In one aspect, the target genes of interest for lettuce aregenes affecting tissue discoloration or wound-induced surfacediscoloration (see, e.g., WO/2017/144669), plant susceptibility genes(see, e.g., WO/2008/092505, U.S. Pat. No. 8,237,019), seed germination,male sterility, among others. In a further aspect, the desired trait isyield, nutritional value, taste, color, crunchiness, male sterility,herbicide tolerance, insect resistance, pest resistance, diseaseresistance, environmental stress tolerance, modified carbohydratemetabolism, or modified protein metabolism, or the mutation occurs inany of the following genes: Ferulate-5-hydroxylase, dmr1, dmr6, NCED4,PAL, PPO.

The disclosure also provides a method for inducing a mutation in lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL comprising:

-   -   a. exposing the seed, plant, plant part, or cell of lettuce        variety NUN 06176 LTL to a mutagenic compound or to radiation,        wherein a representative sample of seed of said variety has been        deposited under Accession Number NCIMB    -   b. selecting the seed, plant, or plant part or cell of lettuce        variety NUN 06176 LTL having a mutation; and    -   c. optionally growing and/or multiplying the seed, plant, plant        part, or cell of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL having the        mutation.

The disclosure also provides a method of producing a lettuce planthaving a desired trait, wherein the method comprises transforming thelettuce plant with a transgene that confers the desired trait, whereinthe transformed plant otherwise retains all of the physiological andmorphological characteristics of the plant of variety NUN 06176 LTL andcontains the desired trait. Thus, a transgenic lettuce plant is providedwhich is produced by the method described above, wherein the plantcomprises the desired trait and has all of the physiological andmorphological characteristics of the plant of variety NUN 06176 LTL.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a method of producing aprogeny of plant of variety NUN 06176 LTL further comprising a desiredtrait, said method comprising transforming the plant of lettuce varietyNUN 06176 LTL with at least one transgene that confers the desired traitand/or crossing the plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL with atransgenic lettuce plant comprising a desired transgene so that thegenetic material of the progeny that resulted from the cross containsthe desired transgene(s). Also encompassed is the progeny produced bythis method.

A desired trait (e.g., gene(s) conferring pest or disease resistance,herbicide, fungicide or insecticide tolerance, etc.) can be introducedinto lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, or progeny of said variety, bytransforming said variety or progeny of said variety with a transgenethat confers the desired trait, wherein the transformed plant retainsall or all but one, two or three of the phenotypic and/or morphologicaland/or physiological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL orthe progeny of said variety and contains the desired trait, wherein thedesired trait is yield, nutritional value, taste, color, crunchiness,male sterility, herbicide tolerance, insect resistance, pest resistance,disease resistance, environmental stress tolerance, modifiedcarbohydrate metabolism, or modified protein metabolism or the mutationoccurs in any of the following genes: Ferulate-5-hydroxylase, dmr1,dmr6, NCED4, PAL, PPO. In a particular aspect, the specific transgenemay be any known in the art or listed herein, including, apolynucleotide sequence conferring resistance to imidazolinone,sulfonylurea, glyphosate, glufosinate, triazine, benzonitrile,cyclohexanedione, phenoxy proprionic acid and L-phosphinothricin or apolynucleotide conferring resistance to Rhizomonas suberifaciens (Corkyroot rot), Bremia lactucae (Downy mildew), Erysiphe cichoracearum f. sp.lactucae (Powdery mildew), Sclerotinia minor and Sclerotiniasclerotiorum (Lettuce Drop), Pseudomonas spp. (Bacterial Soft Rot),Botrytis cinerea (Grey Mold), Verticillium dahlia (Verticillium Wilt),Xanthomonas spp. (Bacterial Leaf Spot), Microdochium panattonianum(Anthracnose), Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lactucae, Rhizoctonia solani(Bottom Rot), Cabbage Loopers, Lettuce Root Aphid, Myzus persicae (GreenPeach Aphid), Liriomyza langei (Pea Leafminer), Liriomyza trifolii(Serpentine Leafminer), Liriomyza sativae (Vegetable Leafminer),Foxglove Aphid, Potato Aphid, Beet Armyworm, Bemisia argentifolii(Silver Whitefly), and/or Aster Yellows. Other resistance genes, againstpathogenic viruses (e.g., Mirafiori Lettuce Big Vein Virus (LMBVV),Lettuce Infectious Yellows Virus (LIYV), Lettuce Mosaic Virus (LMV),Lettuce Necrotic Stunt Virus (LNSV), Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV), TomatoBushy Stunt Virus (Dieback), Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV), TurnipMosaic Virus, Beet Western Yellows Virus (BWYV), Alfalfa mosaic virus(AMV)), fungi, bacteria, nematodes, insects or other pests may also beintroduced.

By crossing and/or selfing, (one or more) single traits may beintroduced into, or modified in, lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL (e.g.,using backcrossing breeding schemes), while retaining the remainingmorphological and physiological characteristics of said variety and/orwhile retaining one or more or all distinguishing characteristics. Asingle trait converted plant may thereby be produced. For example,disease resistance genes may be introduced, genes responsible for one ormore quality traits, yield, etc. Both single genes (e.g., dominant orrecessive) and one or more QTLs (quantitative trait loci) may betransferred into lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL by breeding with saidvariety.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a method of introducing asingle locus conversion, a single trait conversion, or a desired traitinto lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, comprising introducing a singlelocus conversion, a single trait conversion, or a desired trait in atleast one of the parents of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, and crossingthe converted parent with the other parent of lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL, to obtain seed of said variety.

In another aspect, the step of introducing a single locus conversion, asingle trait conversion, or a desired trait in at least one of theparent plants comprises:

-   -   a. crossing the parental line of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL,        with a second lettuce plant comprising the single locus        conversion, the single trait conversion, or the desired trait;    -   b. selecting F1 progeny plants that contain the single locus        conversion, the single trait conversion, or the desired trait.    -   c. crossing said selected progeny plants of step b) with the        parental line of step a) to produce a backcross progeny plant;    -   d. selecting backcross progeny plants comprising the single        locus conversion, the single trait conversion or the desired        trait and otherwise all or all but one, two, or three of the        physiological and morphological characteristics of the parental        line of step a) to produce selected backcross progeny plants;        and    -   e. optionally repeating steps c) and d) one or more times in        succession to produce selected second, third, or fourth, or        higher backcross progeny plants comprising the single locus        conversion, the single trait conversion, or the desired trait        and otherwise all or all but one, two, or three of the        physiological and morphological characteristics of the parental        line of step a) to produce selected backcross progeny plants,        when grown in the same environmental conditions.        The disclosure further relates to plants obtained by this        method.

In another aspect, introducing a single locus conversion, a single traitconversion, or a desired trait in at least one of the parents comprise:

-   -   a. obtaining a cell or tissue culture of cells of the parental        line of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL;    -   b. genetically transforming or mutating said cells;    -   c. growing the cells into a plant; and    -   d. optionally selecting a plant that contains the desired single        locus conversion, single trait conversion, or the desired trait.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a method of introducing asingle locus conversion, a single trait conversion, or a desired traitinto lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, comprising:

-   -   a. obtaining a combination of parental lines of lettuce variety        NUN 06176 LTL, optionally through reverse synthesis of breeding        lines;    -   b. introducing a single locus conversion, a single trait        conversion, or a desired trait in at least one of the parents of        step a); and    -   c. crossing the converted parent with the other parent of        step a) to obtain seed of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.

In any of the above methods, wherein the single locus conversionconcerns a trait, the trait may be yield or pest resistance, or diseaseresistance. In one aspect, the trait is disease resistance and theresistance is conferred to Rhizomonas suberifaciens (Corky root rot),Bremia lactucae (Downy mildew), Erysiphe cichoracearum f. sp. lactucae(Powdery mildew), Sclerotinia minor and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum(Lettuce Drop), Pseudomonas spp. (Bacterial Soft Rot), Botrytis cinerea(Grey Mold), Verticillium dahlia (Verticillium Wilt), Xanthomonas spp.(Bacterial Leaf Spot), Microdochium panattonianum (Anthracnose),Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lactucae, Rhizoctonia solani (Bottom Rot),Cabbage Loopers, Lettuce Root Aphid, Myzus persicae (Green Peach Aphid),Liriomyza langei (Pea Leafminer), Liriomyza trifolii (SerpentineLeafminer), Liriomyza sativae (Vegetable Leafminer), Foxglove Aphid,Potato Aphid, Beet Armyworm, Bemisia argentifolii (Silver Whitefly),and/or Aster Yellows. Other resistance genes, against pathogenic viruses(e.g., Mirafiori Lettuce Big Vein Virus (LMBVV), Lettuce InfectiousYellows Virus (LIYV), Lettuce Mosaic Virus (LMV), Lettuce Necrotic StuntVirus (LNSV), Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV), Tomato Bushy Stunt Virus(Dieback), Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV), Turnip Mosaic Virus, BeetWestern Yellows Virus (BWYV), Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV)), fungi,bacteria, nematodes, insects or other pests may also be introduced. Inone aspect, resistance against Nasonovia ribisnigri biotype Nr:0 and/orNr:1 may be introduced into the plant disclosed herein. Also, anyresistances to physiological stresses may be introduced into the plantdescribed herein, or progeny thereof or into a plant comprising all but1, 2, or 3 or more of the morphological and physiologicalcharacteristics of said plant (e.g., as listed in Tables 1-2).Resistance against one or more of the following may be introduced intothe plant described herein: Tip burn, Heat, Drought, Cold, Salt and/orBrown rob (Rib Discoloration/Rib Blight).

The disclosure also provides a plant having one, two, or threephysiological and/or morphological characteristics which are differentfrom those of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, and which otherwise has allof the physiological and morphological characteristics of said variety,wherein a representative sample of seed of said variety has beendeposited under Accession Number NCIMB ______. In particular, variantswhich differ from lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL in none, one, two, orthree of the characteristics mentioned in Tables 1-2 are encompassed.

The disclosure also provides a lettuce plant comprising at least a setof first set of the chromosomes of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, asample of seed of said variety has been deposited under Accession NumberNCIMB ______; optionally further comprising a single locus conversion ormutation, wherein said plant has essentially all of the morphologicaland physiological characteristics of the plant comprising at least afirst set of the chromosomes of said variety. In another aspect, thesingle locus conversion or mutation confers a trait, wherein the traitis yield, color, size, taste, crunchiness, enhance nutritional quality,post-harvest quality, male sterility, herbicide tolerance, insectresistance, pest resistance, disease resistance, environmental stresstolerance, modified carbohydrate metabolism, or modified proteinmetabolism.

In one aspect, the disclosure provides for a haploid plant and/or adoubled haploid plant of variety NUN 06176 LTL, or a plant having allbut one, two or three physiological and/or morphological characteristicsof lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, or progeny of said variety. Haploidand doubled haploid (DH) plants can, for example, be produced by cell ortissue culture and chromosome doubling agents and regeneration into awhole plant. DH production chromosome doubling may be induced usingknown methods, such as colchicine treatment or the like. In one aspect,the method comprises inducing a cell or tissue culture with a chromosomedoubling agent and regenerating the cells or tissues into a whole plant.

In another aspect, the disclosure comprises a method for producingdoubled haploid cells of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, comprisingmaking doubled haploid cells from haploids cells from the plant or plantpart of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL with a chromosome doubling agent,such as colchicine treatment (see, e.g., Nikolova andNiemirowicz-Szczytt (1996) Acta Soc Bot Pol 65:311-217).

In another aspect, the disclosure provides for haploid plants and/ordoubled haploid plants derived from lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL that,when combined, make a set of parents of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.The haploid plant and/or the doubled haploid plant of variety NUN 06176LTL can be used in a method for generating parental lines of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL.

In one aspect, the disclosure relates to a method of producing acombination of parental lines of a plant of variety NUN 06176 LTL,comprising making double haploid cells from haploid cells form saidplant or a seed of that plant; and optionally crossing these parentallines to produce and collect seeds. In another aspect, the disclosurerelates to a combination of parental lines produced by this method. Instill another aspect, the combination of parental lines can be used toproduce a seed or plant of variety NUN 06176 LTL, when these parentallines are crossed. In still another aspect, the disclosure relates to acombination of a parental lines from which a seed or plant having allphysiological and/or morphological characteristics of lettuce varietyNUN 06176 LTL (e.g., determined at the 5% significance level fornumerical characteristics and determined by type/degree fornon-numerical characteristics) when grown under the same environmentalconditions/

In another aspect, a combination of a male and a female parental line oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL can be generated, for example, throughreverse synthesis of breeding lines.

Using methods known in the art such as “reverse synthesis of breedinglines” or “reverse breeding”, it is possible to produce parental linesfor a hybrid plant such as lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. A skilledperson can take any individual heterozygous plant (called a“phenotypically superior plant” in Example 2 of US 2015/0245570 herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety; lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTLis such plant) and generate a combination of parental lines (reversebreeding parental lines) that, when crossed, produce the variety NUN06176 LTL. It is not necessary that the reverse breeding parental linesare identical to the original parental lines. Such new breeding methodsare based on the segregation of individual alleles in the sporesproduced by a desired plant and/or in the progeny derived from theself-pollination of that desired plant, and on the subsequentidentification of suitable progeny plants in one generation, or in alimited number of inbred cycles. Such a method is known from US2015/0245570 or from Wijnker et al., Nature Protocols Volume: 9, Pages:761-772 (2014) DOI: doi:10.1038/nprot.2014.049. Thus, the disclosureprovides a method for producing parental lines for a hybrid organism(e.g., lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL), comprising in one aspect: a)defining a set of genetic markers present in a heterozygous form (H) ina partially heterozygous starting organism; b) producing doubled haploidlines from spores of the starting organism; c) geneticallycharacterizing the doubled haploid lines thus obtained for the said setof genetic markers to determine whether they are present in a firsthomozygous form (A) or in a second homozygous form (B); and d) selectingat least one pair of doubled haploid lines that have complementaryalleles for at least a subset of the genetic markers, wherein eachmember of the pair is suitable as a parental line for the hybridorganism.

In another aspect, the method for producing parental lines for hybridorganisms, e.g., of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, which when crossedreconstitute the genome of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, comprising:

-   -   a. defining a set genetic a) markers that are present a        heterozygous form (H) in a partially heterozygous starting        organism;    -   b. producing at least one further generation from the starting        organism by self-pollination (e.g., F2 or F3 generation);    -   c. selecting at least one pair of progeny organisms in which at        least one genetic marker from the set is present in a        complementary homozygous forms (B vs. A, or A vs. B); and        optionally repeating steps b) and c) until at least one pair of        progeny organisms that have complementary alleles for at least a        subset of the genetic markers has been selected as parental        lines for a hybrid.

The disclosure also provides methods for determining the identity ofparental lines of the plant described herein, in particular the identityof the female line. US 2015/0126380, which is hereby incorporated byreference, relates to a non-destructive method for analyzing maternalDNA of a seed. In this method, the DNA is dislodged from the seed coatsurface and can be used to collect information on the genome of thematernal parent of the seed. This method for analyzing maternal DNA of aseed, comprises the steps of contacting a seed with a fluid to dislodgeDNA from the seed coat surface, and analyzing the DNA thus dislodgedfrom the seed coat surface using methods known in the art. The skilledperson is thus able to determine whether a seed has grown on a plant ofa plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL is a progeny of said variety,because the seed coat of the seed is a maternal tissue geneticallyidentical to lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. Since lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL is an inbred variety, with a very high degree of homozygosity,any F1 progeny will inherit the same, predictable, set of chromosomesfrom its parent. Thus, the skilled person will also be able to identifymaternal tissues of a seed grown on an F1 progeny of lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL, using the methods described in US 2015/0126380. In anotherparticular aspect, the skilled person can determine the identity of thefemale parental line of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL by analyzing theseed coat of a seed of that variety. In another aspect, the skilledperson can determine whether a seed is grown on lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a method of determining thegenotype of a plant of the invention comprising the step of detecting inthe genome (e.g., a sample of nucleic acids) of the plant at least afirst polymorphism or an allele. The skilled person is familiar withmany suitable methods of genotyping, detecting a polymorphism ordetecting an allele including SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism)genotyping, restriction fragment length polymorphism identification(RFLP) of genomic DNA, random amplified polymorphic detection (RAPD) ofgenomic DNA, amplified fragment length polymorphism detection (AFLPD),polymerase chain reaction (PCR), DNA sequencing, allele specificoligonucleotide (ASO) probes, and hybridization to DNA microarrays orbeads. Alternatively, the entire genome could be sequenced. The methodmay, in certain aspects, comprise detecting a plurality of polymorphismsin the genome of the plant, for example, by obtaining a sample ofnucleic acid from a plant and detecting in said nucleic acids aplurality of polymorphisms. The method may further comprise storing theresults of the step of detecting the plurality of polymorphisms on acomputer readable medium.

Also provided is a plant part obtainable from variety NUN 06176 LTL (orfrom progeny of said variety or from a plant having all or all but one,two, or three physiological and/or morphological characteristics whichare different from those of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL) or from avegetatively propagated plant of variety NUN 06176 LTL (or from itsprogeny or from a plant having all but one, two or three physiologicaland/or morphological characteristics which are different from those oflettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL), wherein the plant part is a leaf, aharvested leaf, a part of a leaf, a head, a harvested head, a part of ahead, pollen, an ovule, a cell, a petiole, a shoot or a part thereof, astem or a part thereof, a root or a part thereof, a root tip, a cutting,a seed, a part of a seed, seed coat or another maternal tissue which ispart of a seed grown on lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, or a hypocotyl, acotyledon, a pistil, an anther, or a flower or a part thereof.

Such plant part of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL can be stored and/orprocessed further. The disclosure thus also provides for a food or feedproducts comprising one or more of such parts, such as canned, chopped,cooked, roasted, in a sauce, in a sandwich, pasted, pureed orconcentrated, juiced, frozen, dried, pickled, or powdered lettuce headsor leaves from lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL or from progeny of saidvariety, or from a derived variety, such as a plant having all or allbut one, two, or three of the physiological and/or morphologicalcharacteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. Preferably, the plantpart is a lettuce head or leaf or a part thereof and/or an extract froma leaf or another plant part described herein comprising at least onecell of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. The food or feed product may befresh or processed, e.g., dried, grinded, powdered, pickled, chopped,cooked, roasted, in a sauce, in a sandwich, pasted, pureed orconcentrated, juiced, pickled, canned, steamed, boiled, fried, blanchedand/or frozen, etc.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides for a lettuce head or leaf ofvariety NUN 06176 LTL, or a part of a head or leaf of said variety. Thehead or leaf can be in any stage of maturity, for example, immature ormature.

In another aspect, the disclosure provides for a container comprising orconsisting of a plurality of harvested lettuce heads or leaves or partsof lettuce heads or leaves of said variety, or lettuce heads or leavesof progeny thereof, or lettuce heads or leaves of a derived variety.

Marketable lettuce heads or leaves are generally sorted by size andquality after harvest. Alternatively, the lettuce heads or leaves can besorted by leaf size, shape, texture, glossiness, or color.

Also, at-harvest and/or post-harvest characteristics of heads or leavescan be compared, such as cold storage holding quality, post-harvest leafcrispness and leaf browning or pinking after cutting can be measuredusing known methods.

In another aspect, the plant, plant part, or seed of lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL is inside or more containers. For example, the disclosureprovides containers such as cans, boxes, crates, bags, cartons, ModifiedAtmosphere Packaging Films (e.g., biodegradable films), etc. comprisinga plant or part of a plant (fresh and/or processed) or seed of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL. In a particular aspect, the container comprises aplurality of seeds of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, or a plurality ofplant parts of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL. The seeds may be pelletedprior to packing (to form pills or pellets) and/or may be disinfected,primed and/or treated with various compounds, such as seed coating orcrop protection compounds. The seed produces a plant of lettuce varietyNUN 06176 LTL.

All documents (e.g., patent publications) are herein incorporated byreference in their entirety, including the following cited references:

-   Naktuinbow and NARO, “Calibration Manual: DUS Test for Lettuce,”    world-wide web at naktuinbow.nl-   US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service,    “Objective Description of Variety—Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.)”,    world wide web at    ams.usda.gov/services/plant-variety-protection/pvpo-c-forms, under    lettuce.-   UPOV, “Guidelines for the Conduct of Tests for Distinctness,    Uniformity and Stability”, TG/13/11 (Geneva 2006, last updated 2017    Apr. 5), world-wide web at upov.int under edocs/tgdocs/en/tg013.pdf.-   World Seed, Guidelines for the Handling of a Dispute on Essential    Derivation in Lettuce Acquaah, G., “Principles of Plant Genetics and    Breeding”, Blackwell Publishing, 2007, ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-2646-4.-   Bertier, L. D., et. al., “High-Resolution Analysis of the    Efficiency, Heritability, and Editing Outcomes of    CRISPR/Cas9-Induced Modifications of NCED4 in Lettuce (Lactuca    sativa),” G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics, 2018, vol. 8, pp. 1513-1521.-   Brotman, Y., et. al., “Resistance Gene Homologues in Melon are    Linked to Genetic Loci Conferring Disease and Pest Resistance”,    Theor Appl Genet, 2002, vol. 104, pp. 1055-1063, DOI    10.1007/s00122-001-0808-x-   Gonai, T., et al., “Abscisic Acid in the Thermoinhibition of Lettuce    Seed Germination and Enhancement of its Catabolism by Gibberellin”,    Journal of Experimental Botany, 2004, vol. 55(394), pp. 111-118.-   Hunter, P. J., et. al., “Oxidative Discolouration in Whole-head and    Cut Lettuce: Biochemical and Environmental Influences on a Complex    Phenotype and Potential Breeding Strategies to Improve Shelf-life,”    Euphytica, 2017, vol. 213(180), DOI 10.1007/s10681-017-1964-7.-   Needleman, S. B., et. al., “A General Method Applicable to the    Search for Similarities in the Amino Acid Sequence of Two Proteins”,    Journal of Molecular Biology, 1970, vol. 48(3), pp. 443-53.-   Nikolova, V., et. al., “Diploidization of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus    L.) Haploids by Colchini Treatment”, Acta Societas Botanicorum    Poloniae, 1996, vol. 65, pp. 311-317.-   Smith, et. al., “Leaf Lettuce Production in California,” 2011,    University of California Agricultural and Natural Resources,    Publication 7216, pp. 1-6.-   Songstad, D. D., et. al., “Genome Editing of Plants,” Critical    Reviews in Plant Sciences, vol. 36, no. 1, pp 1-23.-   Teng, W., et al., “Rapid Regeneration of Lettuce from Suspension    Culture”, HortScience, 1992, vol. 27(9), pp. 1030-1032.-   Teng, W., et al., “Regenerating Lettuce from Suspension Culture in a    2-Liter Bioreactor”, HortScience, 1993, vol. 28(6), pp. 669-671.-   Turini, et. al., “Iceberg Lettuce Production in California,” 2011,    University of California Agricultural and Natural Resources,    Publication 7215, pp. 1-6.-   Vos, P., et al., “AFLP: A New Technique for DNA Fingerprinting”,    Nucleic Acids Research, 1995, vol. 23(21), pp. 4407-4414.-   Wijnker, E., et al., “Hybrid Recreation by Reverse breeding in    Arabidopsis thaliana”, Nature Protocols, 2014, vol. 9, pp. 761-772.    DOI: doi: 10.1038/nprot.2014.049-   Zhang, X., et al., “Genotypic Effects on Tissue Culture Response of    Lettuce Cotyledons”, Journal of Genetics and Breeding, 1992, vol.    46, pp. 287-290.-   US 2008/0222949-   EP 1 197 137 A1-   US 2015/0126380-   WO 2017/144669-   WO 2008/092505-   U.S. Pat. No. 8,237,019

Development of Lettuce Variety NUN 06176 LTL

Lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL was developed from an initial crossbetween lettuce lines. The female and male parents were crossed toproduce seeds. After the cross, progeny was self-pollinated orbackcrossed, followed by pedigree selection and line selection. Lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL can be propagated by seeds or vegetatively, or byregeneration of a tissue culture. The seeds of lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL can be grown to produce inbred plants and parts thereof (e.g.,lettuce heads and leaves).

The Applicant concluded that lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL is uniformand stable. This has been established through evaluation ofhorticultural characteristics. Several seed production events resultedin no observable deviation in genetic stability. Lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL has been assigned an inventory ID of 203911081.

Deposit Information

A total of 2500 seeds of variety NUN 06176 LTL have been depositedaccording to the Budapest Treaty by Nunhems B.V. on ______ at the NCIMBLtd., Ferguson Building, Craibstone Estate, Bucksburn, Aberdeen AB219YA, United Kingdom (NCIMB). The deposit has been assigned NCIMB ______.A statement indicating the viability of the sample has been provided. Adeposit of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL is also maintained at NunhemsB.V.

The deposit will be maintained in NCIMB for a period of 30 years, or 5years after the most recent request, or for the enforceable life of thepatent whichever is longer and will be replaced if it ever becomesnonviable during that period. Access to the deposits will be availableduring the pendency of this application to persons determined by theDirector of the U.S. Patent Office to be entitled thereto upon request.Subject to 37 C.F.R. § 1.808(b), all restrictions imposed by thedepositor on the availability to the public of the deposited materialwill be irrevocably removed upon the granting of the patent. Applicantdoes not waive any rights granted under this patent on this applicationor under the Plant Variety Protection Act (7 U.S.C. § 2321 et seq.).Accordingly, the requirements of 37 CFR § 1.801-1.809 have beensatisfied.

Characteristics of Lettuce Variety NUN 06176 LTL

The most similar variety to NUN 06176 LTL is referred to as NUN 06117LTL, a variety from Nunhems B.V. with the commercial name Vicious.

In Tables 1 and 2, a comparison between lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTLand Reference Variety is shown based on a trial in the USA. Triallocation: Acampo, Calif., USA; Seeding date: Jun. 1, 2020; Transplantingdate: Jul. 2, 2020; Harvesting date: Jul. 29, 2020. In Table 3, thedistinguishing characteristics between lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL andthe Reference Variety are shown.

One replication of 30 plants of each variety (i.e., application andreference varieties), from which at least 20 plants or plant parts wererandomly selected and were used to measure characteristics. Fornumerical characteristics, averages were calculated. For non-numericalcharacteristics, the type/degree were determined. Similarity anddifferences between two different plant lines or varieties can bedetermined by comparing the number of morphological and/or physiologicalcharacteristics that are the same (i.e., statistically not significantlydifferent) or that are different (i.e., statistically significantlydifferent) between the two plant lines or varieties when grown under thesame environmental conditions. A numerical characteristic is consideredto be “the same” when the value for a numeric characteristic is notsignificantly different, e.g., at 5% (p<0.05) significance level forplants grown under the same environmental conditions, using T-testPaired Two Sample for Means, a standard method known to the skilledperson. A non-numerical characteristic is considered to be “the same”when the values have the same “degree” or “type” when scored using USDAand/or UPOV descriptors, for plants are grown under the sameenvironmental conditions. In one aspect, a statistical analysis of thequantitative characteristics showing the degree of significance at 5%significance level is provided (see, Tables 4-12).

In another aspect, the disclosure provides a lettuce plant having all ofthe physiological and morphological characteristics of lettuce varietyNUN 06176 LTL as presented in Tables 1-2, when grown under the sameenvironmental conditions.

TABLE 1 Characteristics of Lettuce Variety NUN 06176 LTL and theReference Variety (Exhibit C - USDA Descriptors) based on Acampo,California, USA Trial Application Variety Reference VarietyCharacteristics (NUN 06176 LTL) (NUN 06117 LTL) UPOV Morphology: Seed:Seed color: Black White white, yellow, brown, black Plant: Plant headdiameter: Small Medium very small, very small to small, small, small tomedium, medium, medium to large, large, large to very large Degree ofoverlapping of upper part of leaves: Absent or weak Absent or weakabsent or weak, medium, strong Number of leaves (only for varieties withdegree Medium to many Medium of overlapping of upper part of leavesabsent or weak): very few, very few to few, few, few to medium, medium,medium to many, many, many to very many, very many Mature Leaf: Leafattitude: Erect to semi-erect Erect erect, erect to semi-erect,semi-erect, semi-erect to horizontal, horizontal Number of divisions:Absent or very few Absent or very few absent or very few, very few tofew, few, few to medium, medium, medium to many, many, many to verymany, very many Shape (only for varieties with number of Narrow ellipticNarrow elliptic divisions absent or very few): triangular, lanceolate,medium oblate, narrow oblate, circular, broad, medium elliptic, narrowelliptic, linear, broad obtrullate, obovate, oblanceolate Shape of apex(only for varieties with number of Rounded Obtuse divisions absent orvery few): acute, obtuse, rounded, obcordate Longitudinal section:Concave Concave concave, concave to flat, flat, flat to convex, convexAnthocyanin coloration: Very strong Absent or very weak absent or veryweak, very weak to weak, weak, weak to medium, medium, medium to strong,strong, strong to very strong, very strong Hue of anthocyanincoloration: Purplish NA reddish, purplish, brownish Area covered byanthocyanin coloration: Very large NA very small, very small to small,small, small to medium, medium, medium to large, large, large to verylarge, very large Color: Reddish purple Dark green green, yellowishgreen, greyish green Intensity of green color: Very light Medium verylight, very light to light, light, light to medium, medium, medium todark, dark, dark to very dark, very dark Glossiness of upper side:Medium Medium absent or very weak, very weak to weak, weak, weak tomedium, medium, medium to strong, strong, strong to very strong, verystrong Thickness: Thick Medium very thin, thin, medium, thick, verythick, Blistering: Absent or very weak Absent or very weak absent orvery weak, very weak to weak, weak, weak to medium, medium, medium tostrong, strong, strong to very strong, very strong Size of blisters:Medium to large Small very small, very small to small, small, small tomedium, medium, medium to large, large, large to very large, very largeUndulation of margin: Very weak to weak Absent or very weak absent orvery weak, very weak to weak, weak, weak to medium, medium, medium tostrong, strong, strong to very strong, very strong Venation:Semi-flabellate Flabellate not flabellate, semi-flabellate, flabellateResistance: absent or present Resistance to Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl:16EU Present Present Resistance to Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl: 17EUPresent Present Resistance to Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl: 18EU PresentPresent Resistance to Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl: 20EU Present PresentResistance to Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl: 21EU Present PresentResistance to Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl: 22EU Present PresentResistance to Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl: 23EU Present PresentResistance to Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl: 24EU Present PresentResistance to Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl: 25EU Present PresentResistance to Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl: 26EU Absent Present Resistanceto Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl: 27EU Absent Present Resistance to Bremialactucae Isolate Bl: 28EU Present Present Resistance to Bremia lactucaeIsolate Bl: 29EU Present Present Resistance to Bremia lactucae IsolateBl: 30EU Present Present Resistance to Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl: 31EUAbsent Present Resistance to Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl: 32EU AbsentPresent Resistance to Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl: 33EU Absent PresentResistance to Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl: 34EU Absent Present Resistanceto Bremia lactucae Isolate Bl: 35EU Absent Present Resistance to Bremialactucae Isolate Bl: 36EU Absent Present Resistance to Nasonoviaribisnigri (Nr) Biotype Absent Present Nr: 0 Resistance to Fusariumoxysporum sp. lactucae Absent Highly Resistant Race Fol: 1 Resistance toLettuce Mosaic Virus (LMV) Absent Absent Pathotype II Resistance toLettuce Root Aphids Absent Absent Resistance to Rhizomonas subefaciens(Corky Absent Absent Root) Resistance to Lettuce Necrotic Stunt VirusAbsent Present (LNSV) USDA Morphology: Plant type: Butterhead, NovitaType, Iceberg Type, Batavia Cos or romaine Cos or romaine Type, Friseed'Amerique Type, Lollo Type, Oakloaf Type, Multi-divided Type, FrilliceType, Cos or Romaine, Bibb/Gem, Stem, Cutting/Whole Leaf, Latin, Other(specify) Spread of frame leaves, cm: 27.55 cm 34.43 cm Butt: Buttshape: Flat Rounded slightly concave, flat, rounded Midrib: Moderatelyraised Moderately raised flattened, moderately raised, prominentlyraised

TABLE 2 Characteristics of Lettuce Variety NUN 06176 LTL and theReference Variety (Non-USDA Descriptors) based on Acampo, California,USA Trial Application Variety Reference Variety Characteristics (NUN06176 LTL) (NUN 06117 LTL) Cotyledon to fourth leaf stage: Leaf attitude(at 10-12 leaf stage): Semi-erect Erect erect, semi-erect, prostate Leafblade division (at 10-12 leaf stage): Entire Entire entire, lobed,divided Apical margin: Entire Entire entire, crenate, finely dentate,moderately dentate, coarsely dentate, incised, lobed Basal margin:Entire Entire entire, crenate, finely dentate, moderately dentate,coarsely dentate, incised, lobed Undulation: Flat Flat flat, slight,medium, marked Cupping: Uncupped Uncupped uncapped, slight, markedlyReflexing: None None none, apical margin, lateral margins Leaf color:Dark purple Yellow green Length of fourth leaf, mm: 86.77 mm 95.86 mmWidth of fourth leaf, mm: 16.22 mm 20.10 mm Mature leaves (harvestmature outer leaves): Length, mm: 156.11 mm 205.97 mm Width, mm: 87.18109.17 mm Size: Small Medium small, medium, large Trichomes: AbsentAbsent absent, present Axillary sprouting: Absent or very weak Absent orvery weak absent or very weak, weak, medium, strong, very strongIncision of margin on apical part: Absent Absent absent, presentDistribution of anthocyanin: Entire NA Kind of anthocyanin distribution:Diffused only NA Plant: Height, cm: 15.53 cm 23.24 cm Weight, g: 127.40g 302.20 g Core: Diameter at base of head, mm (core width): 18.71 mm22.14 mm Height from base of head to apex (mm), average 36.76 mm 30.23mm (core length): Height from base of head to apex (mm), range26.67-56.04 mm 26.10-36.93 mm (min-max):

TABLE 3 Distinguishing Characteristics between Lettuce Variety NUN 06176LTL and the Reference Variety Application Variety Reference VarietyCharacteristics (NUN 06176 LTL) (NUN 06117 LTL) Seed: Seed color: BlackWhite white, yellow, brown, black Plant: Plant head diameter: SmallMedium very small, very small to small, small, small to medium, medium,medium to large, large, large to very large Number of leaves (only forvarieties with degree Medium to many Medium of overlapping of upper partof leaves absent or weak): very few, very few to few, few, few tomedium, medium, medium to many, many, many to very many, very manySpread of frame leaves, cm: 27.55 cm 34.43 cm Height, cm: 15.53 cm 23.24cm Weight, g: 127.40 g 302.20 g Cotyledon to fourth leaf stage: Leafcolor: Dark purple Yellow green Length of fourth leaf, mm: 86.77 mm95.86 mm Width of fourth leaf, mm: 16.22 mm 20.10 mm Mature Leaf: Leafattitude: Erect to semi-erect Erect erect, erect to semi-erect,semi-erect, semi-erect to horizontal, horizontal Anthocyanin coloration:Very strong Absent or very weak absent or very weak, very weak to weak,weak, weak to medium, medium, medium to strong, strong, strong to verystrong, very strong Hue of anthocyanin coloration: Purplish NA reddish,purplish, brownish Area covered by anthocyanin coloration: Very large NAvery small, very small to small, small, small to medium, medium, mediumto large, large, large to very large, very large Color: Purple Darkgreen green, yellowish green, greyish green Intensity of green color:Very light Medium very light, very light to light, light, light tomedium, medium, medium to dark, dark, dark to very dark, very dark Sizeof blisters: Medium to large Small very small, very small to small,small, small to medium, medium, medium to large, large, large to verylarge, very large Undulation of margin: Very weak to weak Absent or veryweak absent or very weak, very weak to weak, weak, weak to medium,medium, medium to strong, strong, strong to very strong, very strongVenation: Semi-flabellate Flabellate not flabellate, semi-flabellate,flabellate Length, mm: 156.11 mm 205.97 mm Width, mm: 87.18 109.17 mmSize: Small Medium small, medium, large Distribution of anthocyanin:Entire NA Kind of anthocyanin distribution: Diffused only NA Butt: Buttshape: slightly concave, flat, rounded Core: Diameter at base of head,mm (core width): 18.71 mm 22.14 mm Height from base of head to apex(mm), average 36.76 mm 30.23 mm (core length):

The results of the T-Test Paired Sample Means show significantdifferences at 5% significance level between lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL and the Reference Variety for fourth leaf length, fourth leaf width,plant spread of frame leaves, plant height, plant weight, mature leaflength, mature leaf width, height from base of head to apex (corelength), and diameter at base of head (core width) as shown in Tables4-12.

Table 4 shows a significant difference between lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL and the Reference Variety (p=0.001) for fourth leaf length (mm)based on the results of the trial conducted in the US during the trialseason 2020.

TABLE 4 Application Variety Reference Variety Statistical Parameter (NUN06176 LTL) (NUN 06117 LTL) Number of samples 20 20 Min. 77.56 73.54 Max98.93 109.96 Median 85.54 95.50 Mean 86.77 95.86 Standard deviation 6.219.14

Table 5 shows a significant difference between lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL and the Reference Variety (p<0.001) for fourth leaf width (mm) basedon the results of the trial conducted in the US during the trial season2020.

TABLE 5 Application Variety Reference Variety Statistical Parameter (NUN06176 LTL) (NUN 06117 LTL) Number of samples 20 20 Min. 12.84 16.35 Max19.46 22.76 Median 16.19 20.12 Mean 16.22 20.10 Standard deviation 1.801.68

Table 6 shows a significant difference between lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL and the Reference Variety (p<0.001) for plant spread of frame leaves(cm) based on the results of the trial conducted in the US during thetrial season 2020.

TABLE 6 Application Variety Reference Variety Statistical Parameter (NUN06176 LTL) (NUN 06117 LTL) Number of samples 20 20 Min. 24.10 31.30 Max31.80 39.30 Median 27.90 34.20 Mean 27.55 34.43 Standard deviation 1.702.12

Table 7 shows a significant difference between lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL and the Reference Variety (p<0.001) for plant height (cm) based onthe results of the trial conducted in the US during the trial season2020.

TABLE 7 Application Variety Reference Variety Statistical Parameter (NUN06176 LTL) (NUN 06117 LTL) Number of samples 20 20 Min. 12.70 19.60 Max18.50 26.50 Median 15.45 23.55 Mean 15.53 23.24 Standard deviation 1.772.34

Table 8 shows a significant difference between lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL and the Reference Variety (p<0.001) for plant weight (g) based onthe results of the trial conducted in the US during the trial season2020.

TABLE 8 Application Variety Reference Variety Statistical Parameter (NUN06176 LTL) (NUN 06117 LTL) Number of samples 20 20 Min. 84.0 196.0 Max214.0 554.0 Median 125.0 274.0 Mean 127.40 302.20 Standard deviation33.43 87.31

Table 9 shows a significant difference between lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL and the Reference Variety (p<0.01) for mature leaf length (mm) basedon the results of the trial conducted in the US during the trial season2020.

TABLE 9 Application Variety Reference Variety Statistical Parameter (NUN06176 LTL) (NUN 06117 LTL) Number of samples 20 20 Min. 146.36 191.68Max 167.72 235.17 Median 155.64 205.47 Mean 156.11 205.97 Standarddeviation 6.60 11.02

Table 10 shows a significant difference between lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL and the Reference Variety (p<0.001) for mature leaf width (mm)based on the results of the trial conducted in the US during the trialseason 2020.

TABLE 10 Application Variety Reference Variety Statistical Parameter(NUN 06176 LTL) (NUN 06117 LTL) Number of samples 20 20 Min. 79.32 94.07Max 98.71 160.55 Median 87.69 106.79 Mean 87.18 109.17 Standarddeviation 4.72 13.46

Table 11 shows a significant difference between lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL and the Reference Variety (p=0.001) for height from base ofhead to apex (core length, mm) based on the results of the trialconducted in the US during the trial season 2020.

TABLE 11 Application Variety Reference Variety Statistical Parameter(NUN 06176 LTL) (NUN 06117 LTL) Number of samples 20 20 Min. 26.97 26.10Max 56.04 36.93 Median 34.93 30.56 Mean 36.76 30.23 Standard deviation7.10 3.14

Table 12 shows a significant difference between lettuce variety NUN06176 LTL and the Reference Variety (p<0.001) for diameter at base ofhead (core width, mm) based on the results of the trial conducted in theUS during the trial season 2020.

TABLE 12 Application Variety Reference Variety Statistical Parameter(NUN 06176 LTL) (NUN 06117 LTL) Number of samples 20 20 Min. 14.62 18.79Max 22.68 29.42 Median 18.84 22.03 Mean 18.71 22.14 Standard deviation2.0 2.37

1. A plant, plant part, or seed of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL,wherein a representative sample of seed of said variety has beendeposited under Accession Number NCMB ______.
 2. The plant part of claim1, wherein the plant part is a head, a leaf, pollen, an ovule, a fruit,a scion, a rootstock, a cutting, a flower, or a cell.
 3. A seed thatproduces the plant of claim
 1. 4. A seed grown on the plant of claim 1.5. A lettuce plant or a part thereof having all the physiological andmorphological characteristics of the plant of claim 1, when grown underthe same environmental conditions.
 6. A tissue or cell culture ofregenerable cells of the plant or plant part of claim
 1. 7. The tissueor cell culture according to claim 6, comprising cells or protoplastsderived from a plant part suitable for vegetative reproduction, whereinthe plant part is an embryo, a meristem, a cotyledon, a hypocotyl, apollen, a leaf, an anther, a root, a root tip, a pistil, a petiole, aflower, a fruit, a seed, a stem, or a stalk.
 8. A lettuce plantregenerated from the tissue or cell culture of claim 6, wherein theplant has all of the physiological and morphological characteristics ofthe plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, when the numericalcharacteristics are determined at 5% significance level and determinedby type or degree for non-numerical characteristics, when grown underthe same environmental conditions, and wherein a representative sampleof seed of said lettuce variety has been deposited under AccessionNumber NCIMB ______.
 9. A method of producing of the plant of claim 1,said method comprising vegetative propagation of at least a part of theplant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, wherein a representative sampleof seed of said lettuce variety has been deposited under AccessionNumber NCIMB ______.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein said vegetativepropagation comprises regenerating a whole plant from a part of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL, wherein a representative sample of seed of saidlettuce variety has been deposited under Accession Number NCIMB ______.11. The method of claim 9, wherein said part is a cutting, a cellculture, or a tissue culture.
 12. A plant vegetatively propagated fromthe plant of claim 1, or part thereof, wherein the vegetativelypropagated plant, or part thereof have all of the physiological andmorphological characteristics of the plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176LTL, when the numerical characteristics are determined at 5%significance level and determined by type or degree for non-numericalcharacteristics, when grown under the same environmental conditions, andwherein a representative sample of seed of said lettuce variety has beendeposited under Accession Number NCIMB ______.
 13. A method of producinga lettuce plant, said method comprising crossing the plant of claim 1with itself or a second lettuce plant, selecting a progeny lettuce plantfrom said crossing, allowing the progeny lettuce plant to form seed, andoptionally repeating the crossing and selecting one or more times toproduce further progeny seed.
 14. A first generation progeny of thelettuce plant of claim 1, obtained by crossing the plant of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL with itself or another lettuce plant, wherein theprogeny lettuce plant has all of the physiological and morphologicalcharacteristics of the plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, andwherein a representative sample of seed of said lettuce variety has beendeposited under Accession Number NCIMB ______.
 15. A method of producinga F1 hybrid lettuce seed, said method comprising crossing a first parentlettuce plant with a second parent lettuce plant and harvesting theresultant hybrid lettuce seed, wherein at the first parent lettuce plantor second parent lettuce plant is the plant of claim
 1. 16. An F1 hybridlettuce seed produced by the method of claim
 15. 17. An F1 hybridlettuce plant or part thereof, produced by growing the seed of claim 16.18. A food, a feed, or a processed product comprising the plant part ofclaim
 2. 19. A container comprising the plant, plant part, or seed ofclaim
 1. 20. A method of introducing a desired trait into the plant ofclaim 1, said method comprises transforming the plant of lettuce varietyNUN 06176 LTL with a transgene that confers the desired trait, wherein arepresentative sample of seed of said lettuce variety has been depositedunder Accession Number NCIMB ______, and wherein the desired trait isyield, storage properties, color, enhanced nutritional quality, malesterility, herbicide tolerance, insect resistance, pest resistance,disease resistance, environmental stress tolerance, modifiedcarbohydrate metabolism, or modified protein metabolism.
 21. A lettuceplant produced by the method of claim 20, wherein the transformed plantcontains the desired trait and otherwise retains all of themorphological and physiological characteristics of the plant of lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL.
 22. A method of introducing a single locusconversion into the plant of claim 1 comprising: a. crossing the plantof claim 1 with a second lettuce plant comprising a desired single locusto produce F1 progeny plants; b. selecting F1 progeny plants that havethe single locus to produce selected F1 progeny plants; c. crossing theselected F1 progeny plants with lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL to producebackcross progeny plants; d. selecting backcross progeny plants thathave the single locus and otherwise comprise all of the physiologicaland morphological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL toproduce selected backcross progeny plants; and e. repeating steps (c)and (d) one or more times in succession to produce selected second orhigher backcross progeny plants that comprise the single locus andotherwise comprise all of the physiological and morphologicalcharacteristics of the plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, wherein arepresentative sample of seed of said lettuce variety has been depositedunder Accession Number NCIMB ______.
 23. The method of claim 22, whereinthe single locus confers yield, storage properties, color, enhancednutritional quality, male sterility, herbicide tolerance, insectresistance, pest resistance, disease resistance, environmental stresstolerance, modified carbohydrate metabolism, or modified proteinmetabolism.
 24. A lettuce plant produced by the method of claim 22,wherein the single locus converted plant comprises the single locusconversion and otherwise has all of the morphological and physiologicalcharacteristics of the plant of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.
 25. Amethod of producing a modified lettuce plant, said method comprisingmutating a target gene in lettuce plant or plant part of lettuce varietyNUN 06176 LTL, wherein a representative sample of seed of said lettucevariety has been deposited under Accession Number NCIMB ______.
 26. Themethod of claim 25, wherein the target gene modifies a desired trait andwherein the desired trait is yield, storage properties, color, malesterility, herbicide tolerance, insect resistance, pest resistance,disease resistance, environmental stress tolerance, modifiedcarbohydrate metabolism, or modified protein metabolism or the mutationoccurs in any of the following genes: Ferulate-5-hydroxylase, dmr1,dmr6, NCED4, PAL, PPO.
 27. The method of claim 25, wherein the targetgene is mutated by targeted gene editing.
 28. A lettuce plant producedby the method of claim 25, wherein the modified lettuce plant containsthe desired trait and otherwise has all of the physiological andmorphological characteristics of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.
 29. Amethod of producing doubled haploid cells of the plant of claim 1, saidmethod comprising making doubled haploid cells from haploid cells fromthe plant or seed of lettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL, wherein arepresentative sample of seed of said lettuce variety has been depositedunder Accession Number NCIMB ______.
 30. A method for determining thegenotype of the plant of claim 1, said method comprising obtaining asample of nucleic acids from said plant and detecting in said nucleicacids a plurality of polymorphisms, thereby determining the genotype ofthe plant and storing the results of detecting the plurality ofpolymorphisms on a computer readable medium.
 31. A method of producing alettuce head or a lettuce leaf, said method comprising growing the plantof claim 1 until it develops at least a leaf or head, and collecting theleaf or head.
 32. A lettuce head or a lettuce leaf produced by themethod of claim
 31. 33. A lettuce plant or part thereof which does notdiffer from the plant of claim 1 when the numerical characteristics aredetermined at 5% significance level and determined by type or degree fornon-numerical characteristics, when grown under the same environmentalconditions, and wherein a representative sample of seeds of said lettucevariety NUN 06176 LTL has been deposited under Accession Number NCIMB______.
 34. A method of determining the genotype of the plant of claim1, said method comprising obtaining a sample of nucleic acids from saidplant and detecting in said nucleic acids a plurality of polymorphisms,thereby determining the genotype of the plant and storing the results ofdetecting the plurality of polymorphisms on a computer readable medium.35. A method for developing a lettuce plant in a lettuce breedingprogram, said method comprising applying plant breeding techniquescomprising recurrent selection, backcrossing, pedigree breeding, massselection, mutation breeding, genetic marker enhanced selection, orgenetic transformation to the plant of claim 1 or part thereof, whereinsaid plant breeding techniques result in a development of a lettuceplant.
 36. A method of producing a lettuce plant derived from the plantof claim 1 comprising: a. preparing a progeny lettuce plant derived fromlettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL by crossing the plant of claim 1 withitself or with a second lettuce plant, wherein a representative sampleof seed of said lettuce variety has been deposited under AccessionNumber NCIMB ______; b. crossing the progeny plant with itself or asecond lettuce plant to produce seed of a progeny plant of a subsequentgeneration; c. growing a progeny plant of a subsequent generation fromsaid seed and crossing the progeny plant of a subsequent generation withitself or a second lettuce plant; and d. repeating step (b) and/or (c)for at least one more generation to produce a lettuce plant derived fromlettuce variety NUN 06176 LTL.